Posted by Scott on January 29th, 2008 — Posted in Politics & Commentary
I watched the State of the Union Address earlier tonight.
While he did mention international terrorism and the wars, Bush did not even mention the domestic violent crime problem.
He leads the country into a needless war in Iraq that will cost trillions of dollars and has made us less safe. But he does not even mention the prevalence of violent crime at home.
Each year, 23 million acts of criminal victimization occur in the United States. It makes me angry that a man who calls himself President would not mention those in a so-called State of the Union Address.
Over 100,000 rapes take place in the United States each year. I would have made that one of the first talking points, but Bush did not even mention anything of the sort.
Like I said in my previous post, politicians ignore violent crime.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on January 26th, 2008 — Posted in Crime Prevention
I just read some crime prevention tips from the Durham Police Department. They geared the tips mostly to businesses, but the tips can help most people.
I want to mention two of the tips in particular.
Firstly, when recommending what to do after a robbery, they recommend to not talk to witnesses until after the police take official statements. I think many people may overlook this. If you talk to the witnesses first, then their testimony becomes much less valuable. A witness testimony can only fully corroborate another if it developed independently.
Secondly, they recommend to make sure to print the address of your building clearly on the front and back. Doing that will make it so police can respond to problems more quickly and easily. If emergency response teams have trouble seeing your address, it will delay them when they to find your building when called for an emergency.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on January 25th, 2008 — Posted in Violence Prevention
I just read an inspiring news story about high-school students who pledged to prevent violence. Some members of the student government at Hoover High School in Glendale made two large posters supporting peace and violence prevention. Other students wrote messages and pledges of peace and nonviolence on the posters.
In these times with a younger generation that sometimes seems socio-politically apathetic, a story like this encourages me. Many students who may have never given much thought to the idea of nonviolence may now have violence prevention on their minds. That can lead to an actual reduction in violence.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on January 24th, 2008 — Posted in Teen Violence
A recent news story from Toronto quotes the police there as saying that adults can prevent violence by joining kids online.
Scott Mills, who runs the Toronto Crime Stoppers school program, said, “I could prevent violence more so from my desk than I could driving around to schools. Just by being out there, engaging with kids online, you build relationships.”
He also describes how he uses social networking websites such as Facebook to find warning signs of violence, to provide adult advice to the kids, and to tell the kids where and how they can report tips and information to law enforcement.
Mills also point out that parents and other adults can use this method of violence prevention.
It seems almost common sense to me. Adults must build a foundational relationship with kids to help and advise them, which they need to do to prevent violence. Because of the newness of the technology, some adults may not realize how much children socialize online. Adults can befriend or otherwise build personal relationships with kids using the internet and online communities. With those relationships, the adults can advise children, spot problems, and prevent violence.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on January 23rd, 2008 — Posted in Domestic Abuse
Hip-hop artist Big Lou told me about the YouTube music video of his song, Stop Hittin Me. Even if you do not tend to like hip-hop music, I beg you to watch this powerful music video about domestic violence:
I love the song. And I love the fact that Big Lou uses his talent to raise awareness about such important issues. What do you think of the music video?
Every year, approximately 1.3 million women suffer from domestic abuse by an intimate partner. Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.
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Posted by Scott on January 22nd, 2008 — Posted in News
I just read an interesting article by Jeanna Bryner about a study with mice that shows that humans naturally crave violence.
In the study, mice would purposely hit a target that would cause an intruder mouse to come into their cage. The mice would do this so that they could fight.
Additionally, experimentation with the brain-chemistry of the mice showed that mice received pleasure from violence in the same way they do from food and sex. When the scientists used chemicals to block dopamine from the part of the brain that gets pleasure from food and sex, the mice would not press the target as much.
The findings do not surprise me. A propensity towards violence played a helpful role throughout the evolution of our species. Violence helps creatures defend themselves.
This may seem discouraging to those of us who want to prevent violence and reduce violent crime. However, I think we can remember that humans have many primitive desires and many self-destructive impulses.
Humans will choose to avoid violence when they can see that the drawbacks outweigh the immediate pleasure. We also get immediate pleasure from getting high off drugs like heroine, but most people do not do that because they realize that the drawbacks outweigh the immediate pleasure.
Also, we can find healthy outlets for our desire for violence such as sports.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on January 21st, 2008 — Posted in Politics & Commentary
I wish you all a good Martin Luther King Day.
But I cannot stop myself from fearing that we let the mission die with the man. Years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his message of unity and non-violence, our society still allows violence.
We still let our government wage needless, expensive wars overseas. Domestically, violence and racism still plague the country. In the United States, nearly 100,000 women get raped each year, for example. The current murder rate in Philadelphia for black men rivals the murder rate in war-torn Iraq.
I believe we have the ability to stop violence and victimization, but we do not take the proper steps to stop it. As individuals, we use our time and money selfishly when we could use it to make a safer and more peaceful society. Politically, we let resources get put towards waging needless wars and enforcing victimless crimes when we could instead put those resources towards preventing violence and protecting people from victimization.
I hope we soon make the drastic changes to our society that King dreamed.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on January 9th, 2008 — Posted in Rape & Sexual Assault
Louisiana sentenced the 43-year-old Patrick Kennedy to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to review the case and decide whether a state can execute someone convicted of raping a child.
The United States constitution bans “cruel and unusual punishment.” In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that the constitution barred execution for the rape of a 16-year-old girl, referring to such an execution as “grossly disproportionate and excessive punishment” for that crime. However, Louisiana’s court apparently views child rape as a much more heinous crime than the rape of a 16-year-old.
I think we all view child rape as an especially horrible form of rape. I see it as more heinous than even most murders.
Federal Law provides for the death penalty for many homicide-related crimes, as well as espionage, treason, and trafficking large quantities of drugs. If the government will execute people for murder, treason, drug trafficking and espionage, then it must allow for the execution of people for child rape to remain consistent.
However, I question the use of the death penalty at all.
I support the defensive use of homicide to protect innocent people. However, I do not want to cause excess harm to violent criminals. If we have already arrested and detained them, then we can just lock them in prison rather than execute them.
I mainly fear the use of the death penalty because of the inability to rectify its misuse. Jails and prisons contain many falsely convicted criminals. For example, DNA regularly exonerates many convicted criminals, including murderers and rapists. We can release these falsely convicted people from prison, but we cannot revive executed people. In my opinion, any slight benefit gained from executing violent criminals, instead of just imprisoning them, does not make up for the execution of falsely convicted people.
Also, I have heard that the death penalty usually ends up financially costing more because of all the expensive judicial appeals involved.
I want to note that I have no interest in punishing anyone. I see vengeance as a fool’s goal. I want offensively violent behavior outlawed to protect innocent people not to punish guilty people. I want murders, rapists, and other violent criminals stopped and incarcerated to protect innocent people not to punish the criminals.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on January 8th, 2008 — Posted in Uncategorized
I have gone through the posts on this blog to find my favorites. I have listed them on the sidebar. I did get bored after going back about 100 posts, so I may have left out some very old posts. Any way check them out:
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on January 5th, 2008 — Posted in Crime Prevention
If you want to make crime prevention your profession, then you might consider going to school for an economic crime degree. Schools such as Utica College offer various courses and degrees related to economic crime prevention.
Economic crime continues to develop with technology. Thieves can find various ways to work with credit cards, electronic banking, credit, and computerized economics. New and different technology results in new and different crime.
Luckily, researchers study and keep track of all the new methods used by scam artists and new age thieves.
What do you think?
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