Science Focus
original post »Violent crime in the United States kills 150 people every day, injuring 6,000 more. Disadvantaged minority youth are disproportionately affected, being more likely to be both perpetrators and victims. This is a population desperately in need of interventions to reduce violent crime.
Conventional wisdom says that if you want to reduce crime, you need to ensure that everyone has a job. In theory, unemployment causes psychological stress, weakens social bonds, and causes people to perceive punishment for crime as less costly, since there’s less to lose. However, empirical social science studies on the impact of youth employment programs don’t have such clear-cut results. Many programs don’t lower crime at all, and those that do are so intense that the costs outweigh the benefits. The theory is sound, but the results don’t show.
A recent randomized, controlled trial published in Science found that certain kinds of employment programs might have an effect after all, if they target the right problems at the right time. Research in medicine and education suggests that intervening before a problem develops leads to better outcomes, with less intensive treatment.
Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
#science
» see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/UEwvSi2VJ2s/
See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'
No comments:
Post a Comment