In my previous post entitled, Recidivism and the Prison Industry (Part 1), I explained that the prison industry does not effectively rehabilitate offenders because doing so is not in their financial interests. The prison industry profits from the expensive wastefulness and ineffectiveness of the prison system. As I said about rehabilitating offenders in the last… Read More
Author Archive
Recidivism and the Prison Industry (Part 1)
In regards to criminal behavior, recidivism refers to criminals re-offending after release from prison. In the United States, the recidivism rate is approximately 60%, which means that more than half of people released from prison commit another known crime. An incarceration system could find many effective ways to significantly reduce the recidivism rate. And I… Read More
Research about Education as Crime Prevention
I made a blog post back in March about the fact that education prevents violent crime and victimization. Today, I read a research brief about education as crime prevention from the OSI. Here are some excerpts: “[R]esearch shows that quality education is one of the most effective forms of crime prevention. Educational skills can help… Read More
Pseudo-Toughness Can Cause Personal Violent Conflicts
I think a lot of violent conflicts happen as a result of pseudo-toughness. That is especially the case in regards to fights between young people and poor or blue-collar people. People trying to be tough will start and get into fights and violent conflicts. For example, I assume most bar brawls and schoolyard fights happen… Read More
Bullying Linked to Continued Depression and Social Anxiety
I just read some interesting but unfortunate news. A recent study of 210 college students found that bullying in grade school appears to increase the chances that the victim will suffer from depression or social anxiety later in life. That includes the often overlooked social bullying, which refers to non-physical forms of bullying, such as… Read More
Most Important Elements of Violent Crime Reduction
Today, I want to mention what I see as the most important elements of violent crime reduction. Education – I have said before that I believe that most of the young, violent gangbangers on the streets would choose to give that life up to become an educated professional, such as a medical doctor, if they… Read More
Comments and Stories about False Accusations
In 2006, I made a blog post about The Danger of False Accusations. In it, I explained that I believe that sometimes false accusations of sexual victimization can be more damaging than sexual victimization itself. More importantly, I explained why I believe activists must work together to simultaneously reduce both the prevalence of false accusations… Read More
Lowering the Age of Consent
I have been thinking lately that high ages of consent hinder efforts to stop sexual victimization, such as rape and sexual assault. If one person has sex with someone else who’s age is under the age of consent determined by the statutes in that jurisdiction, then the sex is considered statutorily unconsensual and is thus… Read More
Sexual Censorship Does Not Prevent Sexual Violence
I am currently reading Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by Dr. Joycelyn M. Elders. I like it so far. Anyway, while reading a chapter about censorship today, I was interested by some information. Elders points out that research has found that viewing erotica or pornography does not correlate with antisocial… Read More
Two Books about Violence in Society
I just finished reading the descriptions of about 20 or so books about violent crime and criminology. Two of the books seemed especially interesting to me. I hope to read them both soon. (Of course, I have a long list of books that I want to read, so it takes me a while to get… Read More
Defending Ourselves by Defending Our Environment
I would not want to make debatable environmental issues too frequent of a topic on this blog. I would not want to take the focus away from preventing more direct violence and victimization, such as rape, murder, sexual assault and battery. We can all agree on the horribleness of those more blatant and direct acts,… Read More
Everyone Can Help End Sexual Violence
I found a nice post on a blog from a University of Wisconsin student. In the blog post, Alex Wagner points out that everyone can help end sexual violence regardless of their race, gender, or religion. I agree! We must refuse to remain complacent or just passively indignant about the prevalence of sexual assault and… Read More