Posted by Scott on December 31st, 2007 — Posted in Crime Prevention
I just read an interesting study and report about the monetary value of saving high risk youth before they turn to crime. You can read the abstract:
There is growing interest in crime prevention through early youth interventions; yet, the standard United States response to the crime problem, particularly among juveniles, has been to increase the use and resource allocation allotted toward punishment and incapacitation and away from prevention and treatment. At the same time, longitudinal studies of delinquency and crime have repeatedly documented a strong link between past and future behavior and have identified a small subset of offenders who commit a large share of criminal offenses. These findings suggest that if these offenders can be identified early and correctly and provided with prevention and treatment resources early in the life course, their criminal activity may be curtailed. While researchers have studied these offenders in great detail, little attention has been paid to the costs they exert on society. This paper provides estimates of the cost of crime imposed on society by high risk youth. Our approach follows and builds upon the early framework and basic methodology developed by Cohen (1998), by using new estimates of the costs of individual crimes, ones that are more comprehensive and that significantly increased the monetary cost per crime. We also use new estimates on the underlying offending rate for high risk juvenile offenders.
I like seeing studies like that. We can use scientific estimates to create effective policies. However, it seems common sense that it would cost less to prevent crime, violence, and victimization from happening in the first place than it would to only react after people have already turned to a life of crime.
Police, courts, jails, and prisons all cost a lot of money. Worse yet, those methods usually do not stop the convict from committing more crime, except when the convict goes to prison for life.
In contrast, we can fix the problem before it gets out of hand by helping at-risk youth before they turn to a life of crime. In analogy, you can save money by buying a simple oil change rather than waiting for your car to run out of oil and break down. Like I said, it seems like common sense.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on December 29th, 2007 — Posted in Crime Prevention
You may think of crime prevention as a major theme of this blog, but I actually do not want to stop crime in general. I could care less about crime in general.
I want to stop violence and victimization. I want to defend innocent people from victimization. But I do not want to see victimless crimes enforced. I do not want any laws outlawing victimless behavior, and I do not want to see such laws enforced.
The creation and enforcement of victimless crimes creates more victims rather than protecting people from violent crime and victimization. The government victimizes the “offenders” of the victimless crimes by offensively attacking them. Additionally, it makes victims out of the taxpayers who have to pay for offensive law enforcement.
If the government wants to rob innocent people with taxation, it could at least use the tax dollars to defend people from violence and victimization rather than wage authoritarian wars on victimless crimes. For example, the “war on drugs” costs the United States hundreds of billions of dollars per year, and it entails such expensive things as throwing non-violent druggies in jail even when the drug-users never hurt anyone. The government could have used all that money to stop victimization, such as rape, murder, vandalism and assault.
I want to protect people from violence and victimization. I do not want authoritarian governments to enforce authoritarian laws. I do not want to forcefully stop people from engaging in victimless behaviors. I only support the use of force to defensively protect a person from an offensive attacker or victimizer.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on December 26th, 2007 — Posted in Crime Prevention
I just read an informative article about the ideas of Irvin Waller, a criminologist who founded the International Centre for Crime Prevention in Montreal and who wrote the book Less Law, More Order: The Truth about Reducing Crime
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I have not read his book yet, but I can tell you that Irvin Waller basically contends that society can reduce crime and protect victims more effectively by tackling the root causes of crime rather than by hiring more police and making stricter laws with longer sentences. For example, he say funds will do more to prevent crime if we put them towards education, family assistance, and helping at-risk youth stay in school and get job training.
I agree. However, I think both can help. Police and long prison sentences do not do much until after an act of crime has occurred, but they do at least prevent the criminal from victimizing anyone else. Having stronger incarceration systems and increasing funds for law enforcement does not stop us from also increasing funding for crime prevention. We can do both.
Some may argue that limited funds would limit us greatly. However, I have already addressed the issue of funding in my previous blog post entitled Funding Security. In that post, I suggested that we fund law enforcement and incarceration by billing convicts. I also suggested that we stop wasting resources on victimless crimes, and instead use all of our crime-related resources to stop victimizers and prevent violent crime and victimization.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on December 25th, 2007 — Posted in News
I hope you have all had a very happy and safe holiday season. If you read this before Christmas ends, then you must leave a comment so that I know you came to read my blog even on Christmas. 
I won’t spend any more of your time or my time tonight, but I will think up a great post for tomorrow.
As always, stay safe and have fun.
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Posted by Scott on December 22nd, 2007 — Posted in Other Posts
If you like this website and find it helpful, you may consider starting your own. If you want to have a website, you will need a web host. A web host has your files on their computer and when people browse your website’s URL or the URL of a file on it, the host computer will send the webpage to the person trying to browse it. If you want to learn more about web hosting or if you want to find a web host, you can use Web Hosting Choice at:
http://www.webhostingchoice.com
Web Hosing Choice has free information published on their website about web hosting. They also have a searchable database of web hosts. You can search by monthly cost, startup cost, diskspace, and/or bandwidth. Luckily, Web Hosting Choice does not have advertisements on their website.
Web Hosing Choice seems useful, helpful, and informative.
I would love to see more advocacy websites for crime prevention, violence prevention, and victimization prevention. Of course, if you decide to make a website, you can make it about whatever you want. Just make sure you know what else you will need to make your website besides hosting. You will need a way to design the website and a way to administer it.
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Posted by Scott on December 21st, 2007 — Posted in Recidivism
I just read an interesting blog post by a police officer who rants about how courts do not put offenders in jail long enough. He points out how most offenders have already committed previous offenses, but the courts or incarceration system has already released them.
I think we can all see that the courts and incarceration systems release non-rehabilitated predators in massive numbers. Most of those predators go out and victimize more people. The government could have prevented those repeat offenses simply by keeping the predator in jail or prison.
However, the jails and prisons have neither the resources nor the space to keep inmates any longer, let alone to actually rehabilitate them. As a result, it releases these victimizers.
We can free up space, funds, and resources by legalizing victimless crimes. The enforcement of victimless crimes costs the United States hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Non-violent drug “offenders” make up over 25% of the inmate population in the United States. Instead of releasing victimizers early, we could stop the authoritarian enforcement of victimless crimes.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on December 21st, 2007 — Posted in Other Posts
I found out about an informative website today about personal finances. FinanceGenius has information about loans, credit, mortgages, insurance, and other financial issues for families. Their Used Car Warranty page explains not only car warranties but also car insurance.
I usually buy my cars used from private sellers not dealerships, so I do not get a warranty. Without a warranty, car insurance becomes more important. Insurance can not only protect you from accidents and your own mistakes, but it can also protect you from car-related crime and other people’s mistakes.
Regarding finances in general, you want to make sure you research it and get help when needed. You want to take the proper precautions to protect your hard earned money. Many financial institutions will let you make bad decisions because they can profit that way. For example, a credit card company would gladly let you spend more than you can pay back, so that they can get you on the hook and charge you high interest rates on your debt.
I like that FinanceGenius helps provide consumers with information and assistance so that they can make smart financial decisions.
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Posted by Scott on December 21st, 2007 — Posted in Property Crime
During the holiday season, pickpockets and thieves can target the stressed, hurrying people at all the packed stores and malls.
Make sure you keep track of all your possessions and your wallet or purse. Also, avoid carrying a lot of cash on you. Also, if you notice your credit cards, debit cards, or gift cards missing, make sure you call the provider as quickly as possible. A thief can more easily make large fraudulent charges during the holidays because stores expect big orders during the holidays.
If you go on a big shopping trip, you can consider taking breaks and locking what you have already bought in the trunk of your car. Of course, you may not want to leave very valuable objects even in the trunk of your car.
Even though retailers have every right to advertise and sell their products, remember that they will try to legally swindle your into buying needless items over the holidays. I suggest that you consider resisting the commercialized versions of the holidays. And instead you can look for more personal (and less costly) ways to show your appreciation for your friends and family.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on December 20th, 2007 — Posted in Other Posts
In this blog, I often talk about identity theft and its affect on credit. However, I want to point out that we do not just have to look out for illegal scammers. Many people and organizations use legal methods to try to profit by putting our credit at risk. For example, credit card companies make most of their money from customers who can’t pay their bill and rack up huge interest rates and late fees. We cannot expect these companies to not try and make a profit for themselves, so we have to take our own credit and personal finance into our own hands.
Due to my distaste for credit-based economies, I try to avoid using credit, but I assume most families could not do that. Most working-class families in the developed world depend on credit to get their house and their car. Additionally, many need credit cards for daily purchases. When I worked as a cashier at a grocery store, I can personally say that the majority of people paid for their food with credit cards. Many of those people probably did not have enough cash on hand to feed their family every day without a credit card.
However, even I need to use credit despite trying not to use it. For example, when I got car insurance, the company checked my credit to determine my rate. (I guess people with bad credit make more claims on average.) Also, even when renting an apartment, most landlords try to check my credit. I assume the landlords have even stricter credit requirements in the safer, higher-class neighborhoods in which most families would prefer to live.
As we can see, bad credit and poor finances can greatly risk our safety. Take the proper steps to keep your finances in order, and make sure to only use credit to borrow money for that which you need or can definitely pay back on time.
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Posted by Scott on December 18th, 2007 — Posted in Politics & Commentary
by Scott Hughes
Today I became an administrator of a group on Facebook about the Jewish Holocaust, which refers to when Germany’s National Socialist regime exterminated approximately 6 million European Jews. The group’s title quotes a Hebrew biblical commandment, “Lo taamod al dam reakha,” which means, “You shall not stand idly by the shedding of the blood of your fellow man.”
Of course, even as a nonreligious man, I like that commandment a lot. I hope many people follow it whether because their religion commands it or for more secular reasons.
However, standing idly by would help more than what we do now. We fund war and genocide. As the people of the world, we choose to help facilitate war and genocide as to preserve the routine of our personal lives. We not only fail to stand up for the victims and up to the victimizers, but we also help the victimizers so that they do not disrupt the relative tranquility of our day-to-day lives.
In Nazi Germany most people in Germany behaved like that. Throughout the Native American Holocaust most Americans have behaved like that. People have behaved like that during the recent Rwandan Genocide and now during the current racial conflicts in Darfur.
The vast majority of people in those regions and times behaved like the vast majority of us behave now. We let warmongers use fearmongering to get us to not only allow but also support war and genocide.
Politicians have their own corrupt, self-serving reasons for war and genocide. For the politicians, it generally comes down to money and power for themselves and their cronies–which consists broadly of the entire ruling class in any given society. Regardless, to get that profitable war, they use that fearmongering.
Fearfully, we start to view entire groups of people as simply the enemy. An entire nation’s people could become the enemy. An entire race of people could become the enemy. All the people that practice a certain religion could become the enemy.
When we view an entire group of people as simply the enemy, then we value their lives much less than we value whatever little safety we supposedly get by their destruction, defeat, or annihilation. As a result, we support the annihilation of the enemy. We allow war and genocide and we help facilitate war and genocide. We choose to fund governments that wage war on the enemy.
Countless examples exist. Many Americans cared little about the lives of the over 200,000 Japanese civilians murdered by the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the Americans saw the Japanese as simply the enemy. They felt the same way about the Japanese-Americans shoved in concentration camps in the United States. Many people of various Middle Eastern nations felt the same way about the thousands of American civilians murdered in the 9/11 attacks. The Nationalist Germans felt the same way about the Jews and Germany’s other “enemies” during the Second World War. Many non-Jewish Palestinians feel that way about all the Jewish Israelis, and many Jewish Israelis feel that way about about the non-Jewish Palestinians.
In contrast, the free-thinkers in any society may not fall for the oversimplifying rhetoric of the fearmongering warmongers. Additionally, those free-thinkers may recognize and dislike the brutality and inhumanity of war and genocide. However, even the free-thinkers generally behave selfishly and shortsightedly. Even the free-thinkers among us generally offer little more than idle indignation. Like most everyone else, even the free-thinkers choose to protect the tranquility of their own lives rather than the safety of the victims of war and genocide. For example, to keep the routine of their day-to-day lives, even the free-thinkers usually pay taxes to warmongering and genocidal governments.
I would love to see the day most of us, regardless of our religious beliefs, followed the commandment, lo taamod al dam reakha. But first, at the very least, we could stop supporting the bloodshed of civilians. At the very least, we could stop supporting war, terrorism, and genocide. We could stop thinking of whole groups of people as the enemy. We could try to give up fear and shortsighted selfishness, and bravely make our personal decisions based on higher ideals such as humanity, peace and love.
What do you think? Please post a comment.
5 Comments »
Posted by Scott on December 17th, 2007 — Posted in Other Posts
I often address identity theft on this blog. In today’s credit-based economy, most people buy things with credit not physical money. Credit is the money nowadays. That’s why identity theft continues to become more prevalent. Identity thieves essentially steal your credit, and usually leave you stuck with damaged credit. BadCreditOffers.com provides bad credit loans for people with bad credit. That website will lets users search through different offers, so that they can compare and choose the best one for themselves. Luckily, it provides that service for free.
They also have a page that lists some places you can get credit reports. You can compare the benefits and costs of the different credit report websites.
I like the website because it helps people with bad credit. Many people have bad credit. Identity theft isn’t the only cause. Real thieves or scammers can leave a person unable to pay their bills on time. Additionally, other people can unintentionally hurt a person’s credit. For example, a roommate or business partner can hurt your credit if they get into financial trouble and cannot pay their share of the bills. Also, a personal crisis or just a few mistakes can cause you to damage your own credit. Bad credit offers can help you get back on your feet and start repairing your credit.
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Posted by Scott on December 17th, 2007 — Posted in Martial Arts
I think enrolling children in martial arts classes at a young age can help them a lot. If you enroll them young, as older kids or even adults they will have more experience.
Martial arts helps most of all not because it helps children learn how to fight but because it helps children learn when to fight and how to avoid avoid fighting. The latter two skills help people protect themselves much more than the first one.
I think of prevention as the most effective form of self-defense. Once we get into a dangerous situation or a violent conflict, we have already greatly increased our risk of injury or victimization.
When looking for a martial arts school for your child or yourself, try to find one that focuses on prevention and avoidance. The same goes for any self-defense classes. You want to learn how to avoid getting harmed, not how to fight well.
What do you think?
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