Do Street Light Poles Reduce Crime?

It's easy to hide when it's dark everywhere, said Reverend Carey, standing on a dark street in Oakland, California. Crime, he said, can't be prevented when people can't see the criminals.

The debate on whether or not a lighted street at night reduces crime has flared anew, as frightened residents across the country have flooded local city councils with requests for more streetlights on city streets.

Research has indicated that more streetlights reduces crime.

Streetlights act as a natural deterrent and watchman, insisted Brandon Welsh, a professor of criminology at Northwestern University. Studies show that streetlights will reduce crime by 20 percent and more at night. These streetlights also give residents a feeling of ownership over their neighborhoods and a sense of pride, Welsh said.

However, tough budget times have cities scrambling to cut costs, and turning off street lights is one solution. This action has placed city councils in direct conflict with chiefs of police who insist that more light means less crime.

For example, Oakland has seen a large increase in murders this year. So far, 85 people have been murdered in the city this year. That's up 25 percent from the previous year.

The previous Oakland police chief requested more streetlights in the high-crime areas of Oakland. That lighting helped in reducing crime. The chief said that when criminals want to commit a crime, they want to do it in darkness.

Because of the increased crime, the reverend has organized neighborhood watch groups to guard their neighborhoods. To do that, though, requires more light, the reverend said. People can't report criminals if you can't see their faces, he added.

The increased crime that Oakland is experiencing is replicated in other cities across the United States.

The equation is simple: More lights mean less crime, according to an analysis published by the Campbell Collaboration.

The review by Campbell looked at 13 different studies of street lighting in the United States and England and found that improved street lighting cut crime by 21 percent, as compared to areas where street lighting wasn't improved.

Street lighting was more effective in England, where crime fell by 38 percent. The drop in crime in The United States was 7 percent, although the studies used by Campbell were much older than those from England.

The Campbell study surmised that better street lighting also increased community pride. This community pride generated neighborhood solidarity that established an "informal social control" to reduce crime.

Peter Wendt is a writer and researcher living in Austin, Texas. Over the years he has become an authority on electrician Austin TX. If you would like to learn more about this subject, then the author recommends a visit to Quantum-electric.com.

You Cannot Reduce Crime by Changing Outside Support Systems!

I began carrying a loaded pistol with me every day when I was about 13-years-old. Durham police frequently stopped me to confiscate my concealed weapons that always included a pistol and frequently a "hawk bill," a curved blade knife that ripped flesh as it cut. Why, some of them asked, can we always stop you and get weapons off you? "Because," I always replied, "I'd rather you catch me with it than for some of the people I run with to catch me without it." Taking my guns and knives didn't encourage me to stop doing crime. I just bought other weapons. They were always readily available. Sometimes local police also confiscated whatever cash I had on me, sometimes hundreds of dollars. They instictively knew I had stole the money, but they couldn't prove it, so they took it. I never knew what they did with the money. I assumed they kept it. Did taking my money motivate me to change? No! I just went and either stole more money, or property I could easily convert into cash, or I got in a series of gambling games until I won what I thought I needed.

Recently, I read a suggestion by David Gorman, a loss reduction specialist, who suggested that the government should take the $100 bill out of circulation because, from his perspective criminals favor those specific denominations to transact their various businesses. Will that slow down criminals? Will they transact less business? Will criminals conclude the following: "Well, they've taken our favorite money denomination out of circulation, so I guess we just gotta stop doing crime?

Given my personal experiences, plus almost 40 years of research into how criminals think, I conclude that David Gorman's suggestion is flawed at best Gorman's suggestions were published in the Providence (RI) Journal. It's interesting that almost everything Gorman wrote is true. For example: "The underground economy and criminal economy thrive on paper cash, especially the $100 bill." That's right! "In fact, the payment of choice by drug cartels and terrorist organizations is the $100 bill because it is easy to store, launder and transport." That's true, too. "Because 100s are difficult to change, and are risky and unnecessary for law-abiding Americans to carry, the functional use for the $100 bill has been declining while its demand in the underground economies is booming." Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but I concede the point.

However, I take exception to Gorman's sweeping conclusion. He wrote: "By simply demonetizing the $100 bill, we can do more to undermine terrorist and other criminal activity without any expense to the taxpayer and no harm or loss of life to law enforcement and our troops. In fact, it would be a peaceful and nonviolent method for preventing crime, drugs and terrorism and will assist law enforcement in their crime-solving efforts." That's not true, not by a long shot!

There's no easy way out of this mess!

Recalling my 20 years as a criminal--from five-years-old until 25-years-old--it was quite a time before I got my thieving hands on a $100 bill. Yes, I liked $100 and $50 bills during my criminal lifestyle. But I also liked $20s, $10, fives and ones just as much. Therefore, I don't believe that demonetizing $100 and $50 bills will do anything to reduce crime and terrorism. Certainly, it will not prevent it.

Now, I'm not trying to discourage anyone from taking these bills out of circulation. Go ahead, do it! But please let's not kid ourseleve into believing that somehow that alone will prevent potential criminals from becoming full-fledged offenders. Do not believe that operating criminals will walk away from the lifestyle in frustration because they can no longer get their greedy hands on these two denominations of money.

Let's hear the truth!

First of all, we are all stakeholders in this vision of crime reduction in our society! I define the stakeholder groups as: criminals, crime response professionals (police, judicial officials and correctional professionals), citizens--who, by the way, pay the total bill for crime and its responses,--careerists, change advocates, change activists and change conquerors. Crime reduction occurs when a criminal becomes a change activist, and continues a long and arduous transformation process along the Change Continuum until he or she becomes a change conqueror. Other stakeholder groups must learn how to support this transformation process that begins inside and demonstrates itself in the outward behavior of change activists. For example, crime response professionals must learn to recognize and promote small and quick flashes of desires to change in criminals. Citizens must insist on change as the only equitable return on their prodiguous investment in crime and the criminal justice system. Careerists--the people who determine who works--must learn to recognize the difference between changing and conning. They must stop refusing jobs to former criminals just because they've been convicted. Change advocates must learn how to become catalysts for change and not enablers of criminal thinking. For example, we must sacrifice a particularly silly belief that by completing a prison sentence, a criminals pays his or her death to society.

Consider the scenario. A thief burglarizes your home! Who paid for the stuff the thief stole? You know! You did! You report the crime to the police. Who pays the police? You again, right! The police arrest and jail a suspect. Who pays for the nation's jails? Yep, that's you again. So on the day, you go to court to testify against this cad for invading your space and stealing your stuff, you pay the judge. Worse, you pay the prosecuting attorney to do his or her best to send this thief to prison, while simultaneously paying a public defender or court appointed lawyer to help the thief avoid prison. Let's suppose now that the court gets a conviction, however it occurs, and the thief goes to prison. Well who pays for the nation's prisons? You know the sickening answer--you do! So when did the criminal pay, and precisely what did he or she pay? Actually, when released from custody, all the criminal did was outlive a court sanction.

So if the current criminal justice system fails in its attempt to foster widespread change among criminals, how it the world will demonetizing two demoninations of money: " . . . undermind terrorist and other criminal activity . . .?"

Change is hard, hard, hard work! As a 40-year change activist and currently a change conqueror, I know firsthand how challenging it is to transform from criminal to community contributor. But I also know that the payoff, the outcomes make all the challenges, the obstacles, even the frustrations worth the struggles.

So Mr. Gorman, let's roll up our sleeves together and begin working hard to help criminals change. Transformed criminals don't do crime. That's the vision! Let's get on with it!

I have spent almost 40 years mastering the principles of how to stay out of crime and prison. I am now an expert and I want to share this expertise with others. For more information, please visit [http://www.miltoncjordansr.com/index.cfm?id=4901&fuseaction=browse&pageid=55]

New Thoughts on How to Reduce Drug Usage and Crime

Crime is becoming rampant due to drug usage. Drug usage is becoming rampant due to those wanting to escape from responsibility. Escape from responsibility is becoming rampant because of the tyranny of the law and legal system in our country. The legal system and the laws and lawyers are becoming more active and domineering because of crime. It is a self-feeding system and as all self-feeding systems it needs to have a brake put on it at some point.

The things that have been tried in the past won't work. It needs to have some innovative thinking brought to bear on the problem. Different ideas need to be brainstormed as to what place in the links between these factors the stopgap should be put.

Let's take the first problem, that of crime becoming rampant because of the need for drugs. People are using drugs to replace God in their lives. They have lost the ability to trust society or religion for any answers to their problems and to answer their unanswered questions for them.

By using the drugs, they feel powerful enough that they do not need to be dependent on society and its educational practices or the churches and their educational practices. They simply determine, then to create their own society. The more that fall into this drug culture, the stronger it becomes. If not stopped it can become a culture of great power, as the taking of drugs eliminates the conscience which is what the spiritual path is all about, you remember. When the conscience is eliminated and in most cases destroyed by the taking of drugs, then crime is rampant within the culture, even against other members of the drug culture. They do not just commit crime against those not taking drugs, but the elimination of the conscience allows them to commit crime even against their own, be it mother, father, brother, sister or friend.

The taking of drugs destroys any hope of their soul having any influence over the form. The drugs themselves actually kill off brain cells. The same is true of all drugs, be it nicotine from tobacco or alcohol or any other of the drugs now in use. They all will prevent clear thinking.

Our government has tried every way they can think of to stop drug trafficking. Nothing has worked. Perhaps the answer is legalization. This would certainly stop the huge amounts of money that exchange hands. This would stop the high street cost and therefore the need to commit crimes to get the money to buy drugs.

It is a known fact that when something is out of reach it becomes very desirable. This is true for all humans. Perhaps this is the only way to gain control of the drug problem is to lose control. Sometimes this is what it takes. This would put the problem directly where it belongs, each person taking direct responsibility from the age of twelve on as to whether he wanted to live his life in a drug haze, or to be completely free of mind altering contaminants. There hasn't been an aggressive enough campaign from the correct angles on this subject. It needs to be approached from an educational and spiritual viewpoint combined.

The next link in the chain is that of crime to obtain the money to buy the drugs. Drugs are slave masters. They entail loss of freedom because of the ability to be addictive. Crime can also be addictive. Once a person "gets away with a crime" it becomes a powerful stimulus in his mind to know or think, anyway, that he has outwitted those seemingly much more mentally powerful than he is.

Therefore, those trying to stop crime need to learn to think like a criminal. There needs to be schooling given that gives the law enforcement officers the ability to think like a criminal.

There also has to be a powerful goal to be obtained. One suggestion would be financial bonuses for law enforcement officers for directly being responsible for catching criminals.

If it isn't always possible to determine who is responsible for solving the case, for instance in a case as big as the Oklahoma bombing, the reward money should go to the victims families.

Where will the reward money come from? There are many sources. One suggestion would be from minor traffic violations. In other words, an increase in minor traffic offenses such as parking tickets, speeding, not wearing seat belts, etc. This puts the responsibility right back into the hands of the people who will benefit from a reduction overall in crime. It will come from the people who want to have a crime free country giving to the victims of crime or to the fund that will honor the people who catch the criminals.

The next place in the linkage between all this is in the law and the lawyers, those making the laws and those hired to protect and defend people who have been accused of breaking the law. The lawyers need to understand how the mind of someone works who is out to "get what they can" from situations that should never be defendable in a court of law. These are the people who do not want to take any responsibility for themselves.

One case I can think of are those who sue a restaurant over coffee that is too hot. Every mother teaches her child to be aware of hot drinks. What kind of a mother would she be if she did not do this? Have these people forgotten what they learned at their mother's knee? The responsibility in this case is clearly their own. There are many other instances where this is happening.

Lawyers need to attend a school of drama where they act out many different roles of being in business or offering services where they are "sued" by other lawyers in the school for things that will immediately seem ridiculous and point up where all this is leading. There needs to be much more control over lawyers by lawyers as to whether they take these shoddy cases. They are, of course, after the money these cases will bring. There needs to be a stop gap put into the rewards these lawsuits bring. The profession of law needs to police itself. Once again we come back to education through acting out the roles of those you are offering service to.

This is a new direction that education needs to take at every step in our lives. Walking a mile in the other person's shoes, learning how the mind of a criminal works. Those who sue for ridiculous reasons are just as much a criminal as those who rob a bank. Those who take on these cases are just as guilty. What they are all doing is hurting everyone and feeding, in a round robin manner, the monster of money. Medical lawsuits are some of the worst. Fraud is another big crime, almost as bad as murder. Courses in responsibility need to be implemented in the schooling of our children because it obviously isn't coming from the parents. They didn't get it themselves so cannot teach it.

This article was excerpted from The New Millennium NoteBooks by Norma Hickox. Learn more about Norma at my website which is at http://www.chrysalispub.com Norma is a musician. She plays & teaches 6 instruments & composes music. She has also done painting, writing, dance and theater.

How To Reduce Crime In Your City

(NC)-During my term as Chair of the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention, I have a visited cities in the United States, England and Belgium to discuss successful crime reduction strategies with local crime prevention officials. One thing that struck me was how similar their experiences were. In each city there was a serious crime problem, a focussed response and a substantial improvement in both the reality and the perception of safety.

Although there are no "one-size-fits-all" solutions, there are common elements at work, chief among them a willingness to involve the community in a meaningful way. As one Chief of Police observed, "I [used to think] that the police fought crime alone and that the community could only get in the way. Now we've got it right. We understand that in order to prevent crime and keep our community safe, we've got to involve the community as our partner."

Jack Calhoun, President and CEO of the U.S. National Crime Prevention Council has identified six factors that were present in successful American city programs, even though actual strategies differed. They are:

A belief that all key municipal entities must play a role in cutting crime and violence. Schools, businesses, municipal government and social services must all work together.

The need to engage in specific, trackable actions. Cities need to have clear data on what the problems are, where they are and what's causing them. They need to know what's working and what isn't in order to use resources effectively.

The courage to do business differently and to share power. Giving up "turf," while difficult, is essential to working together.

A dual commitment to targeted enforcement and prevention - things like after school programs and mentoring. Law enforcement resources must be deployed consistently with broader crime prevention objectives.

A commitment to the long term. This is a challenge when some offer instant solutions, but helping young people build better lives doesn't happen overnight.

And, as Calhoun puts it, "Clear, passionate, hands-on commitment from the leading policy-makers, prime among them the Mayor and the Chief of Police."

Leadership; working together; identifying problems and then attacking them; measuring results; doing business differently; being tough on crime and equally tough on the causes of crime . . . these are the factors that we witness everyday in projects and communities throughout Canada. They produce positive changes here, just as they do in countries around the world.

For details on how Canadian towns and cities are working together to reduce and prevent crime, and how your community can get involved, visit www.crime-prevention.org [http://www.crime-prevention.org].

About The Author

Barbara Hall, is Chair of Canada's National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention.

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