Prison Systems Breed Future Violence
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 8, 2010) carried a report about the decreasing violent crime rate across the country. The report, based on FBI statistics, said all major violent crimes—homicide, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault—have been decreasing since 2007. Homicides decreased by 4.4 percent between 2007 and 2008, and by 10 percent during the first six months of 2009. Major cities like Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles recorded decreases in homicides levels not seen since the 1960s.
The Journal article, written by Tamara Audi and Gary Fields, cited nationally-acclaimed criminal justice experts like James Alan Fox who believe the violent crime decreases are tied to the aging U.S. population. “The graying of America is a significant factor,” the Lipman Professor of Criminal Justice at Northwestern University in Boston told the Journal. “The largest and fastest growing segment of the population is people over 50. People over 50 also happen to be the age group that is the least likely to commit crimes. As the group grows, crime rates do decline.”
Professor Fox also informed the Journal that the “common assumption that crime goes up during a recession” is erroneous. The professor pointed to “historic data” which shows there is little correlation between economic conditions and violent crime.
With all due respect to Professor Fox’s expertise, the nation should view the “good news” of a decreasing violent crime rate with certain trepidation. The Associated Press recently carried a report about the findings of a U.S. Justice Department study showing that 12 percent of youths held in state-run, privately-run, or local facilities are victims of some form of sexual abuse during their incarceration. Currently, there are close to 27,000 juveniles held in such facilities nationwide. Approximately 9,000 of these juveniles participated in the Justice Department survey which was conducted by a Rockville, Maryland company called Westat between June 2008 and April 2009.
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