Conference quark::human_relations-v1

    I live in the South End of Boston close to Roxbury.  There is great
    cooperation between police and citizens and many strategies have
    been developed to combat crime.  We have neighborhood watches, the
    police patrol in taxi's and other unmarked vehicles.
    
    There is a lot of publicity and the criminals are well aware that
    there are people around that are willing to risk their life to make
    the community safe.
    
    On August 5th we are having a block party on a section of Washington
    Street that is used by the prostitutes, pimps and drug dealers.
    The objective is to 'reclaim' our neighborhood.
    
    It is early in the morning, Nancy, and I just wanted to add these
    few comments.  This is a great subject and one that is dear to my
    heart.  I will reread your note later on and answer in more detail.
    
    J

                                                                      
    	The block party that Joyce mentioned is the best approach, because
    it's a "wholistic" effort. There is a power that is much greater
    than that of any individual and that is the power of the whole.
    Laugh if you want, ignore this reply as so much mumbo jumbo, but
    I say that people brought together in common cause is the most
    effective and efficient means of changing a situation that there
    is. "Money" - any amount of it - is quite powerless in comparison.
    
    	If you want crime to go down in a certain area, gather together
    as many people as possible who feel that same way and just meditate
    on that idea as a whole. Do this all the time and it will happen.
    There's a statistical study somewhere done on this very process
    which reports significant, favorable results. I wish I knew where.
    
    	Joe Jas 

    
    Have to agree with .1 and .2...
    
    I think trying to solve violent crime is like trying to get rid
    of the spots that accompany measles without recognising the measles.
    
    In my opinion, VC is a symptom in many cases, not the cause. It
    is "easy" to perpertrate violence when you do not identify yourself
    with the victim...and it is easy to allow violence when you do so.
    
    If you can successfully get a community to identify as such...and
    start feeling responsibility for the health of the community..VC
    will go down.  Then the non-relational VC that intrudes is more
    easily dealt with with finite resources.
    
    Just my thoughts...jumbled per usual..
    
    Melinda

Murder:  A good part of the time, murder happens as part of the execution
of another crime.  The rest of the time it is an act of passion/emotion.

Aggravated assault:  Assault happens as part of other crimes, but aggravated
assault is probably only from acts of passion/emotion.

Rape:  Rapists must be (in my mind) rather twisted individuals.  If we can
prevent people from being twisted in this way, we can prevent rape.

Robbery:  Robbery is motivated by money and needing to have what other people
have that you do not.

Poverty:  The only crime directly related to poverty is robbery, although
Poverty increases stress leading to emotional crime, and can twist people,
possibly leading to rape.  What we need to do is arrange our society so that
everyone grows up being able to care for/support themselves.  Handouts to
poverty do not "solve" the problem, they only add another layer to the problem.
Leniency because 'he's just a poor boy' does not work either; it is neccessary
that be the consequences of crime, whatever the reason.  No, people need to grow
up knowing how to care for themselves in the first place. 

Penalties:  It is a premise in this country that punishment of a crime must be
appropriate to the crime.  You can only increase the punishment of a crime so
much before it becomes 'cruel and unsual punishment' regardless of whether it
will deter the crime or not.  Other means must be used to *prevent* crime. Even
If everybody speeds since you seldom get caught, a 200$ fine for speeding is
still cruel and unusual punishment.

More Police & prisons:  It is impossible for the Police to do the job they
claim/advertise/generally are believed  to do, guarding the people, without
literally having bodyguards.  People must be able to protect themselves. The
place of the Police is in hunting down criminals after the fact.  We don't need
more prisons; we need less criminals. 

"to what degree is violent crime committed because people just can't easily
resist not committing the crime due to societal influences?"

I'm not sure I follow you, but...  Our society is sick, and it sickens the
people within it.  I am constantly surprised that revolutions/riots/etc are not
more common then they are.  We need to cure our society.  Regardless of that,
people must be responsible for the crimes they commit.

Reward/Punishment:  I would say that punishment/reward is only a part of th
process;  Whether or not you will get caught, or how much your ill gotten gain
will be *should* have very little to do with the decision to commit a crime. The
factors which affect the decision should be 'is this the right thing to do?' and
'Who is this going to affect in what way?'. There will always be crimes which go
unpunished/unenforced, and there will always be crimes which pay well. We can
always punish severely those who get caught, but not the better criminals who do
not get caught, and it will cost us prohibitively to guard against them.

I like Philosophy...

Jim. 

    Re: .4
    
    >Murder:  A good part of the time, murder happens as part of the
    >execution of another crime.  The rest of the time it is an act of 
    >passion/emotion.
    
    The latest _Time_ had synopses of 464 shooting deaths that occurred in
    the week of May 1-7.  A large number of them were suicides.  Another
    large number were preceded by arguments.  A moderate number were the
    result of crimes (drug-related shootings made up a large portion of
    these).  A few were accidental shootings.

Wow!  The first few responses are truely a breath of fresh air.

I think the bottom line is alienation.  We have to start building
a world that works for everyone.  The best place to start is with
ourselves in our own community.

- Peter

    -1
    
    What office are you running for???
    
    Dwight