6 proven policies for reducing crime and violence without gun control Vox
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| By German Lopez @germanrlopez german.lopez@vox.com Updated Jul 19, 2016, 10:40am EDT 6 proven policies for reducing crime and violence without gun control George Frey/Getty Images On a night of the Republican convention focused on "making America safe again," one question, strangely, went unanswered: How exactly could policymakers make America safer? Although Americans are in fact safer than they were decades ago , this seems like a pretty crucial question to answer given the first day of the convention's theme. I previously reached out to criminologists and researchers across the country 05/08/22, 10 : 57 Page 1 of 15 about this issue. My question: What nonpartisan policies can America use to reduce crime and gun violence without going after the guns themselves? I started with the assumption that gun control laws would not happen, since that issue is too politically fraught — and it's certainly not something Republicans seem likely to support. After all, although there's strong evidence that America's uniquely high levels of gun ownership cause the US to have more violence than other developed countries, guns aren't the only cause of violence and crime — there are other factors, from cultural issues to socioeconomic variables to even smaller issues like alcohol consumption , that drive these problems. What follows are six of the promising ideas I heard to reduce crime and gun violence in particular. This is by no means a comprehensive list — there are great websites solely dedicated to that kind of catalog. But these policy ideas give some perspective on how many options are left to local, state, and federal lawmakers as long as they don't want to do anything about guns — or maybe even if they do. 1) Stricter alcohol policies 05/08/22, 10 : 57 Page 2 of 15 Alcohol has been linked to violence. According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence , alcohol is a factor in 40 percent of violent crimes. And a 2010 study found a strong relationship between alcohol stores and gun assaults. These statistics and research are one of the big reasons that possessing a gun while drunk is largely illegal . "It's a disinhibition theory," Charles Branas, one of the 2010 study's authors, said. "So it's not so much aggressiveness, but that decisions and judgment that would normally be held in check are suddenly disinhibited under consumption of alcohol." This doesn't mean America should ban alcohol — prohibition in the 1920s was a disaster. But there are other policies that America could take up to limit alcohol-related problems: A higher alcohol tax : A 2010 review of the research in the American Jasper Juinen/Getty Images 05/08/22, 10 : 57 Page 3 of 15 Journal of Public Health came out with strong findings: "Our results suggest that doubling the alcohol tax would reduce alcohol-related mortality by an average of 35%, traffic crash deaths by 11%, sexually transmitted disease by 6%, violence by 2%, and crime by 1.4%." Reducing the number of alcohol outlets : A 2009 review published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine also found that limiting the number of alcohol outlets — through, for example, stricter licensing — in an area can limit problematic drinking and its dangers. But it also found that going too far can have negative results — by, for example, causing more car crashes as people take long drives to outlets and possibly drink before returning home. Revoking alcohol offenders' right to drink : South Dakota's 24/7 Sobriety program effectively revokes people's right to drink if a court deems it necessary after an alcohol-related offense. The program, specifically, monitors offenders through twice-a-day breathalyzer tests or a bracelet that can track blood alcohol level, and jails them for one or two days for each failed test. Studies from the RAND Corporation have linked the program to drops in mortality, DUI arrests, and domestic violence arrests. Notably, the NRA, the biggest gun rights group, already agrees alcohol and guns don't mix. Its website says , "Never use alcohol or over-the-counter, prescription or other drugs before or while shooting." The question, Branas said, is how to make that "operational" — and some of these policies could move in that direction. 2) Hot-spot policing 05/08/22, 10 : 57 Page 4 of 15 Yes, police practices have run into increasing criticism over the past couple years — with the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement and its protests against racial disparities in the criminal justice system and police use of force. But police can, obviously, play a huge role in reducing crime, especially by adopting evidence-based tactics like hot-spot policing. The idea, explained to me by famed criminologist David Kennedy: In many cities, a very small subset of places, down to the street and block level, drive most of the crime. So deploying police, intelligently, in these specific areas can have a big impact on fighting crime and violence. Yüklə 10,45 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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