if you and your community want to reduce crime then maybe think about some of the tips in this
video however if you and your community just want to listen to horrific stories of crime like a
bunch of voyeuristic psychos with nothing better to do then boy do i have good news
for you because my true crime podcast the casual criminalist publishes two new episodes every week
elementary school serial killers oh yes weird letter writing stalkers the ruiner family's
beautiful new home that they just moved to yes doctors who abuse their authority to murder people
yeah you bet so if any of that sounds interesting to you well maybe talk to a therapist or something
but also check out the casual criminalist via the links in the description below
thank you let's get into it americans will never stop fearing crime on a profound
primal level news media will make sure of that a 2019 gallup poll showed that while 38
of people believed that crime was on the rise in the local area 78 believed it was on the
rise nationwide even though it's been trending downward since the 1990s yep even during the
pandemic so with so many people living in fear of being victimized by crime you'd think there would
be plenty of open-mindedness regarding potential solutions so please approach these potential
solutions with an open mind they've been subjected to considerable testing and study so even if they
seem fanciful too good to be true or agenda driven they have got the backing of cold hard analysis
10. nutritional programs whether school lunches should be free or not is a surprisingly partisan
topic in political terms what's much clearer is that providing free food to the impoverished
children has been an effective crime deterrent with quantifiable results a study published
in 2016 of 35 000 people found that white and hispanic males who self-identified as
having often experienced hunger growing up were around three times more likely to be prone to
violence than those who had not while among black respondents it was about 50 more that's not to say
that giving more food to poor people is any kind of surefire solution and in fact without some
balancing efforts it could backfire a five-year study conducted by chelsea singleton at the
university of illinois found that when there were high levels of obesity and physical inactivity
communities of all races experienced increases in violent crime it seems like any nutritional
program will need a companion program to burn many of those calories off 9. more nightlight in 2018
the new york city police department new york city housing authority and the research group crime lab
published their findings on a six-month study of 80 neighborhoods which contained more than 80 000
people they found a 39 reduction in violent crime in those neighborhoods when the amount of lighting
was significantly increased these included high priority neighborhoods where as few as 21
of the residents reported that they felt safe walking around at night notably the study was
supported by 13 others conducted in the u.s and the uk but both the scale of those other studies
and the degree of crime decrease they found was much smaller averaging only 27 percent although it
does feel odd to use the word only when describing a 27 crime decrease in any context number eight
robust non-profits this might feel like too broad of a statement so much so that there would be risk
of overlap with entry number 10 but the data that endorsed a policy of strong support for nonprofit
organizations is completely separate and quite precise it comes from a 2017 new york university
report called community and the crime decline which included data collected from 1990 through
2013 it found that for cities of roughly a hundred thousand people for every large non-profit group
related to crime and community life murder dropped roughly 0.9 percent violent crime in
general dropped 0.6 percent and property crime dropped 0.4 percent effectiveness of nonprofits
in helping crime areas is supported around the world including in the most harrowing locations
take medellin colombia home town of pablo escobar and such a notoriously violent place that it was
nicknamed machine gun city in 2017 cnn reported that a vigorous library expansion and all the
accompanying community programs were changing the very nature of the seemingly hopeless place
7. green spaces now this may be the first one that a lot of people will be skeptical of since parks
and urban areas are commonly considered hotbeds for criminal activity that's to no small extent
because it's actually true a 2015 study found that crime in parks and surrounding neighborhoods was
up to four times higher than those without parks and that violent crime was up to 11 times higher
that's why the distinction between parks and green spaces needs to be understood green spaces
are essentially accenting buildings plazas and other urban sectors with small areas of plant
life rather than areas of relative forestry like a row of trees versus a naturalistic grove of them
studies have found that compact green spaces could lower crime in nearby buildings by as much as 52
even parks can be converted from crime hot spots to crime deterrence if there is regular
maintenance in organized community activities so it's not the most encouraging news for park
fans but fans of greenery can still take heart that their passion can help a city
if used in moderation 6. violence in video games now we've all heard violent video games being
used as a scapegoat anytime that a young mass shooter in america and yet there's significant
evidence that popular violent video games have short-term yet positive effects censorship of
game content has been proposed have seemingly been counterproductive in 2014 the american
psychological association published a study that found that during the times around the release of
major violent games such as those in the grand theft auto series crime rates consistently
dipped in 2011 a study conducted by university of baylor and the center for european economic
research found a 1 decrease in crime for every 10 increase in sales of violent video games the
unflattering conclusion was that society benefited from how the games kept people whose brains hadn't
fully finished developing too busy with a harmless activity to go out and commit crimes which still
sounds better than the alternative 5. classical music it turns out the claim we heard for years
that classical music raises the intelligence of children is not true there's a very valid reason
for businesses and other establishments to play classical music to young people it's admittedly
a pretty cynical one in 2003 a station with transport for london with a high crime rate
began an experiment of playing classical music a 33 drop in robberies and 37 drop in vandalism
followed it was replicated in all businesses across the uk and america such as a mcdonald's
on the isle of wight in 2019. the reason given for its success was that playing bach and vivaldi
through the loudspeakers made the location seem stodgy and uncool this compels the youth to leave
the general area as it tends to give off the vibe of being uncool obviously this is proposed more
as a business than a governmental policy as it tends to be pretty bad for cities and towns to
drive all the youth away as much as the senior citizens might want that 4. organized religion
now here's one that should appeal to those who judged the earlier entries a bit too hippy-dippy
yet it's supported by a study published in 2013 of 182 counties in new york california and texas
conducted by pennsylvania state university the study found that among impoverished white black
and latino populations a larger percentage of the population that identified with organized
religion meant a lower crime rate this has been demonstrated time and time again over the years
in 2011 the houston chronicle reported that 247 studies conducted between 1944 and 2010 found a
similar result only two from the same sample found the more organized religiosity meant more crime
now it must be noted that research has only indicated a benefit for communities with organized
religion that reinforces a sense of community the psu study found that among people that identified
as spiritual but not religious the crime rate was actually significantly higher than among
non-religious number three prison education for many people prison is at least as much about the
satisfaction of punishing people as it is about preventing crime but for those more interested
in preventing crimes and recidivism it's no contest from a logistical perspective the 2004
ucla school of public policy and social research report correctional education as a crime control
program by audrey bazos and jessica hausmann found that while a million dollars spent expanding the
prison system prevented an average of 350 crimes spending the same money on correctional education
prevented 600 crimes of comparable severity as it is there are concerns about how prisons control
the education that convicts receive for example mother jones reported that in 2017 the book free
economics was banned from texas prison libraries because it quoted a slur from a member of the ku
klux klan and yet two books from david duke the former leader of the clan were allowed into the
same system there have also been massive cuts to prison library funding nationwide
since the 2008 recession such as the state of illinois cutting the annual prison budget from
750 000 in the 2000s to 276 dollars for 28 facilities by 2017. unfortunately it would
seem that the u.s prison system is letting this opportunity slip through its fingers or at least
it's being extremely clumsy with it number two diversity there are a number of people that will
suggest that ethnic diversity leads to tensions that increase crime rate such as charlton heston
in the 2002 documentary bowling for columbine as with violent video games the evidence indicates
that the truth is a bit closer to the opposite that's according to sefer churchill and emmanuel
lorea authors of the 2019 study crime and ethnic diversity cross-country evidence which analyzed
data patterns from 78 countries they found that whether it was a matter of ethnic or linguistic
diversity crime rates were lower across the board among more diverse communities to a degree outside
the margin for error this by the way went against the results that churchill and larea expected
was they themselves saying in the abstract that they arrived the results counter-intuitively
linguistic diversity was actually more beneficial in a number of areas as for example regarding
crimes of theft the ethnically diverse communities had 8.4 percent lower crime while linguistically
diverse communities saw a 9.8 lower rate on balance ethnic diversity was more beneficial
considering such matters as a homicide rate that was 1.62 percent lower in linguistically diverse
communities while a much more robust 6.38 lower in ethnically diverse communities but surely when
it comes to homicide any policy that lowers a rate by even one victim is worth considering number one
guaranteed income many people first heard the idea of universal basic income from andrew yang's 2020
campaign for the democratic party presidential nomination in 2020 but it actually has been
floated around since studies were performed for it in denver and seattle under president nixon
it's also been a reality for americans living in alaska since 1982 not to mention the eastern
band of cherokee in north carolina everywhere guaranteed income has been attempted the results
have been a significant lowering in the crime rate particularly for property crime encouragingly it's
also been found to increase social cohesion lower stress and improve public health by making visits
to the doctor more affordable all of this has happened without any of these experiments causing
a decrease in workforce participation there are still rational concerns such as
inflation though there has been data from a 2003 mexican poverty program that strongly indicates
that inflation fears are exaggerated but the possibilities as a crime deterrent justify
further tests at the very least so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please
do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and as always thank you for watching