RegBarc
12-19-2006, 07:04 PM
So I was watching NBC Nightly News (1st mistake), and they were doing a report the rising violent crime rate in Indianapolis/entire United States. A professor was being interviewed for the story and was trying to make the connection between more cops doing homeland security detail and not doing beat patrols anymore. He called it robbing Peter to pay Paul, or something to that effect.
I almost screamed at the TV.
That's one of those causal connections that, while it sounds like common sense, just don't pan out.
Unless you have beat cops on every single high crime corner in a given area, the amount of police patroling that area will have a neglible effect on the amount of crime in that area. The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment was a great example of how you can increase patrols until the cows come home, but it won't have an effect on crime. The experiment also showed that police could form test patrol units (read: directed at specific types of crime or missions, like homeland security) without effecting crime. This stuff is bread and butter of criminal justice, yet people are trying to pin it on homeland security demands.
Crime is a reflection of social degredation; the breakdown of a stable household, the glorification of crime in a given culture, and crimes relating to quality of life (lack of income, drugs, etc.).
It just amazes me an academic is trying to pull the crap on the national news.
I almost screamed at the TV.
That's one of those causal connections that, while it sounds like common sense, just don't pan out.
Unless you have beat cops on every single high crime corner in a given area, the amount of police patroling that area will have a neglible effect on the amount of crime in that area. The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment was a great example of how you can increase patrols until the cows come home, but it won't have an effect on crime. The experiment also showed that police could form test patrol units (read: directed at specific types of crime or missions, like homeland security) without effecting crime. This stuff is bread and butter of criminal justice, yet people are trying to pin it on homeland security demands.
Crime is a reflection of social degredation; the breakdown of a stable household, the glorification of crime in a given culture, and crimes relating to quality of life (lack of income, drugs, etc.).
It just amazes me an academic is trying to pull the crap on the national news.