A MEASURE OF EFFECTIVENESS: RATES OF CRIMINALITY

Early in the history of this blog, this writer provided a reason or set of reasons for the existence of this blog; that is, the state of civic life in this country is deficient and one area with which to address this less than optimal state is civics education.  Since then, one can justifiably ask:  have those conditions been rectified?

Currently, this blog is providing more recent evidence of how civic the citizenry is today.  Leading up to this posting, the blog has looked at levels of knowledge of government and politics, levels of political engagement, levels of skills in that engagement, and levels of civility.  Unfortunately, the same overall evaluation can still be made; as a matter of fact, things have gotten worse.

In this posting, this update will come to an end.  There is one more area of concern this whole issue of good citizenry should address:  levels of law abiding behavior or, stated negatively, levels of criminality.  A responsible civics program should reasonably instruct students to be law-abiding citizens, or so common sense would indicate. A general axiom guiding such instruction should be:  a citizen should obey the law.

After all, one chief constitutional principle in the US is justice under the rule of law.  Also, within this approach there should be the effort to encourage a disposition toward obeying the law.  Yes, one should engage in determining what laws should be passed by the nation’s legislatures – from Congress to the city council – but, once passed, the laws should be obeyed. 

One can cite instances when it is good and just to engage in civil disobedience on rare occasions, but even then, such acts need to be justified and the participants willing to accept the consequences of those acts, including jail time.  Of course, the history of the civil rights movement and perhaps the protests of the Vietnam War come to mind when one considers justified civil disobedience, at least in the minds of many who favored those movements.  But other than those kinds of examples, one should obey the law.

Under normal conditions, why anyone would disobey the law can be complicated.  Reasons can range from the level of severity of the offense (e. g., speeding on an expressway might not be considered criminal behavior) to the economic realities in which an offender might find him/herself.  Regardless of these intervening factors, the general principle should be:  obey the law.

But with any kind of factor one might think acceptable, one should remember that these conditions generally exist everywhere.  Poverty in many places much more extreme than here, exists everywhere.  Mental illness exists everywhere.  Dysfunctional families exist everywhere, and so on ...

Therefore, if we look at comparative statistics about lawlessness among countries, the information should give us at least a sense of how well this nation’s populous lives by the axiom:  one should obey the law.  In turn, the information should also give us another measure of how well civics education is fulfilling its aims and functions.

To start, the US has over 7.3 million people in its prisons.  With 5% of the world's population, it has 25% of the world's prison population.[1]  Comparing the US to another nation which shares many of the same values, the United Kingdom has 150 out of 100,000 people in prison.  The US has 686 out of 100,000 people detained.[2] 

While many factors contribute to any comparison, such as a government's ability to prosecute its laws or over prosecution and punishment for minor crimes – e. g., drug related prosecution – the US does not fare well in comparisons regarding criminality.

But one might point out, as the media has done recently, that a lot of this incarceration in the US is the result of over-zealous laws concerning drugs.  And one good bit of information on this front is a lowering crime rate in more recent years.  For example, the rate of victims per 1,000 population has dropped in the US from 51.7 in 1979 to 15 in 2010.[3]  Yet before we celebrate, there are other relevant numbers. 

Another statistical site offers the following:  total number of persons brought into formal contact with the police and/or criminal justice system, for all crimes in 2011 (top ten nations)

United States         12,408,899 with a population of 322 million (38.58 per 1,000)

Germany     2,112,843 with a population of 81 million (26.08 per 1,000)

France                   1,172,547 with a population of 67 million (17.5 per 1,000)

Russian Fed.         1,041,340 with a population of 147 million (7.08 per 1,000)

Italy            900,870 with a population of 61 million (14.77 per 1,000)

Canada                 688,920 with a population of 36 million (19.14 per 1,000)

Chile           611,322 with a population of 18 million (33.96 per 1,000)

Poland                  521,942 with a population of 38 million (13.74 per 1,000)

Spain          377,965 with a population of 46 million (8.22 per 1,000)

Netherlands 372,305 with a population of 17 million (21.9 per 1,000)[4]

Obviously, the US does not do well in this comparison.  Whether a nation is ruled by a liberal regime as opposed to an authoritarian regime is relevant to how levels of criminality are measured.  So, while these other countries might or might not have as extensive a list of drug laws, the US beats them all in terms of its crime rate.

The closest country is Chile.  Chile, as a Latin country, has a culture, described by Daniel Elazar, as one that harbors an anarchistic individualism.[5]  This blog has argued that the US started out with a more federalist sense of individualism; one that “recognized the subtle bonds of partnership linking individuals even as they preserve their individual integrities... .”[6]  It has, in more recent years, abandoned its more federalist roots (a process that has been described in this blog).  These numbers are but one indicator of how far that shift has made itself known.

To be clear, this description is not speaking of a dystopian image of lawlessness.  As a matter of fact, the nation has experienced in the last decade a drastic drop in crime rates.  Paul Krugman writes:

The murder rate began falling, and falling, and falling. By 2014 it was all the way back down to where it was half a century earlier. There was some rise in 2015, but so far, at least, it’s barely a blip in the long-run picture.

Basically, American cities are as safe as they’ve ever been. Nobody is completely sure why crime has plunged, but the point is that the nightmare landscape of [current – 2016 – political] rhetoric … bears no resemblance to reality.

And we’re not just talking about statistics here; we’re also talking about lived experience. Fear of crime hasn’t disappeared from American life — today’s New York is incredibly safe by historical standards, yet I still wouldn’t walk around some areas at 3 a.m. But fear clearly plays a much diminished role now in daily life.[7]

          This account of current conditions as compared to past conditions sounded to this writer as curious given the family stories he heard about how law abiding people were in the good old days.  He checked past crime rates.  This is what he found:

Changes in the overall incidence of crime are most often measured by examining the index crime rate, which includes the reported crimes of murder/nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. The reported crime rate was fairly level during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, before sharply increasing until the early 1970s. … The United States is currently in the midst of the longest period of decline over the entire period shown [1960 to c. 2000], with a 1998 crime rate of 4,615 per 100,000 population, the lowest since 1973, when the rate was 4,155.[8]

The rate during the period between 1933 and 1958 was under 1,000 per 100,000, a fraction of what it has been since 1973, which was over 4,000 per 100,000 population.  The crime rate in 2014, according to FBI statistics, was 2,596 per 100,000.[9]  So in this, the old days were good.

In this blog, a point has been made about how qualitatively different our pre- and post-World War II years have been.  As pointed out, the nation experienced a change in the dominant political construct by which the citizenry sees government and politics.  This crime rate change is but one indicator that this claimed change in political orientation and the nation’s sense of rights has been real.

And as for over-zealous policy in terms of drugs, it is known that other crimes are downplayed.  Currently, the nation is being told of how many under-reported and under-addressed cases of abuse against women and to a lesser degree men there are in the military and on college campuses.  Whether such incidents outnumber cases of long prison sentences for drug crimes is unknowable.  But no one is claiming that people in the nation are readily going to jail and prison for legal behaviors.

Before leaving this issue of criminality and incivility, the incidents of racism and anti-Semitism should be mentioned.  These two examples of less than ideal attitudes or respect for fellow citizens has had an ugly history in the US.  They deserve more comment than what is given here.  The nation has made significant advances in eliminating these dispositions, but – and this particularly refers to racism – there are still elements of them that lead to tragic results.[10] 

In 2015 and 2016, the nation witnessed incidents in which unarmed African-American suspects were shot and/or killed by law enforcement agents under highly questionable circumstances.  There was a mass killing by a young man in a church where multiple victims were senselessly shot for apparently racial reasons.  While most Americans do not engage in such behaviors and most overt racist acts do not occur in everyday life, the level of occurrence and their antisocial qualities indicate that below the surface, many Americans do harbor racist beliefs and values. 

Such cases are complex and controversial, but the number of cases cannot avoid being a source of supportive evidence for the conclusion that racist attitudes exist among the populous.  In most cases, when such attitudes are expressed in overt behavior, laws are broken. This needs to be addressed in our civics classrooms.

One can assume that they are addressed in most classrooms, but such efforts need to be contextualized as offenses to a general moral regime in which citizens are defined as being tied together under a value commitment to egalitarian standards.  While a natural rights view is logically opposed to such prejudicial behaviors, its application with its bias toward everyone doing his/her own thing, lends to an atmosphere that tolerates such attitudes.

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[1] “Record Prison Population,” CNN, March 2, 2009, accessed March 10, 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/02/record.prison.population/.

[2] Roy Walmsley, “United Kingdom Report,” Home Office, UK Government, Walmsley, accessed October 19, 2016, https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-population-statistics .

[3] Gallup, “Americans Believe Crime Worsening,” Google Search, no date, accessed March 10, 2017, https://www.google.com/search?q=crime+rates+in+US+over+time&espv=2&biw=1093&bih=514&tbm=isch&imgil=P4g2P-obB-jlRM%253A%253BcPni19546Kal8M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.gallup.com%25252Fpoll%25252F150464%25252Famericans-believe-crime-worsening.aspx&source=iu&pf=m&fir=P4g2P-obB-jlRM%253A%252CcPni19546Kal8M%252C_&usg=__zxIEm18APlIHiED8D3gsYadxZL4%3D&ved=0CCcQyjdqFQoTCJeJut67-ccCFcY8PgodmAwJGA&ei=NUj4VdeaD8b5-AGYmaTAAQ#imgrc=P4g2P-obB-jlRM%3A&usg=__zxIEm18APlIHiED8D3gsYadxZL4%3D .

[4] “Top Ten Countries with Highest Reported Crime Rates,” Maps of the World, no date, accessed March 10, 2017, www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-highest-reported-crime-rates.html .

[5] Daniel J. Elazar, “How Federal Is the Constitution?  Thoroughly” Readings for Classes Taught by Professor Elazar (presentation materials, prepared for a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute,  Steamboat Springs, Colorado, 1994).

[6] Ibid., 10-11.

[7] Paul Krugman, “No, Donald Trump, America Isn’t a Hellhole,” New York Times, Aug 26, 2016, accessed March 10, 2017,  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/opinion/no-donald-trump-america-isnt-a-hellhole.html?_r=0 .

[8] “Introduction to Historical Data,” Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA), 2000, accessed March 10, 2017, http://www.jrsa.org/projects/Historical.pdf .

[9] “FBI Releases 2014 Crime Statistics,” Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), September 28, 2015, accessed March 10, 2017, https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2014-crime-statistics .

[10] In the “after glow” of the 2016 presidential election, there has been an uptick in very observable incidents of anti-Semitic cases.  Most noted have been the desecration of Jewish cemeteries.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE TO COLLABORATIVE QUALITIES

This blog, of late, has been reviewing the effectiveness of our civics education programs across the nation, not by looking at test results but by looking at the actual state of the nation’s citizenry.  This look is based on the standard suggested by Robert Putnam’s use of the concept, social capital.[1]  To remind the reader, Putnam defines social capital as a societal quality characterized by having an active, public-spirited citizenry, egalitarian political relations, and a social environment of trust and cooperation.  Therefore, a good citizenry is one that exhibits certain attributes.

          These attributes include a citizenry with high levels of political knowledge, high levels of political engagement, a disposition to being politically engaged, high levels of civility, and low levels of criminality.  To date, the blog has reviewed the state of knowledge, engagement, and civility.  The next posting will look at criminality.  In short, by this method of evaluation, civics education has not been doing a good job.  Yes, there are bits of evidence that indicate otherwise, but overall, Americans do not exhibit satisfying levels of these attributes.

          In the opinion of this writer, this is a good place to insert an important factor.  That is, these attributes do influence the economic disposition of citizens and, in turn, affect their politics and governance, particularly when the nation is a democracy.  Putnam's idea does refer to people looking at their society as something greater than their immediate interests and ambitions.  The question arises:  how do insufficient levels of these attributes affect economic, political, and governing aims, goals, and behaviors.

In short, in accordance with the values entailed with social capital, good citizens are willing to seek supportive qualities – a willingness to help each other – in themselves and in their associations and community.  The antitheses would be narcissism and selfishness.  Of course, people are entitled to pursue their individual goals and interests.  The question is:  how do they balance the demands of their own ambitions and those of the collectives to which they belong? 

There are social philosophies that equate the two.  For example, pure market values tend to do that.  Adam Smith, who to many is the father of capitalism, argued that the greater good is achieved by individuals pursuing their individual interests.  The cooperation entailed in providing a wanted good or service within the context of a competitive market, through the “invisible hand,” produces the best results for society. 

While capitalism has provided untold wealth and prosperity, markets do fail and at times will, if unchecked, lead to social detriment.  Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell present a convincing argument, backed by statistical evidence, about how excessive narcissism and its manifestations were central in creating the conditions that led to the economic crisis back in 2008. 

An irrational degree of self-enhancement promoted the excessive materialism and its accompanying debt, which resulted from buying houses beyond people's means to running up credit card charges which placed people in unsustainable positions.  Of course, lending institutions, run by equally narcissistic or purely self-centered motives, fed this monumental irresponsibility.[2]

There has been a lot of ink used by economic experts who trace these reckless developments back to the 1980s.  This includes an enormous shift of wealth to the upper classes.  To cite an article in the New York Times, quoting experts Jacob Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of Berkeley:  “Over the last generation more and more of the rewards of growth have gone to the rich and superrich.  The rest of America, from the poor through the upper middle class, has fallen further and further behind.”[3] 

This inordinate level of income and wealth to the upper class needs to be invested, while otherwise productive economic activity is hampered by a diminishing ability of the low and middle classes to consume.  Two results occur:  one, the excess money (capital) in the hands of the upper class becomes fodder for developing “bubbles;” i.e., investments that heighten asset prices such as stocks and real estate when the fundamental economic conditions do not justify their increases.

And two, the lower classes engage in excessive borrowing to make up for the lost wealth and income (to maintain their standards of living).  There were also leveraged investment schemes in which borrowing was collateralized by assets attained with borrowed money.  Another flow of capital made its way to financing productive facilities in foreign countries offering cheap labor.  In these cases, we have a lack of investment to generate sufficient middle class employment in this country.  Hence, we have a diminishing middle class. 

The bubble effect and the excessive leveraging just described were conditions that also preceded the Great Depression of the 1930s.  But before it is determined that what has happened to the economy mirrored the conditions of the '30s, one needs to understand that the nation is situated presently in a much more complex world economy. 

It seems the economy has avoided the catastrophes of the Great Depression, but the pain associated with the Great Recession has been real and still lingers in certain segments of the economy.  According to many commentators, the associated conditions had a significant effect on the results of the 2016 presidential elections.  As was stated above, conditions are getting better, but the effects of the Great Recession are still being felt.

Whether this short description is correct or not, the nation did see in the pre-collapse period an excessive narcissism based on assumptions created by the faulty economy.  The people spent way over what they were earning (by borrowing on the artificially inflated equity in their houses) for a long time.  That time ran out.

Again, the concept of social capital is relevant since this idea refers to a citizenry that has adopted a meaningful degree of selflessness.  Yet what we experienced and continue to experience is a social situation in which we see increasing levels of selfishness and narcissism.[4]  In addition, this noted disparity in income and wealth has many consequences.

In Putnam’s more recent book, Our Kids:  The American Dream in Crisis,[5] he writes about how the disparity has led to a high degree of economic and social segregation among the nation’s economic classes.  The nation is creating the social dynamics that will make it more difficult to sustain its social infrastructure that supports its essential institutions.  That is, the nation is losing its sense of being federated among all its citizenry.

Therefore, one can expect in the coming years a less public-spirited citizenry, less equality in terms of both economic factors – such as opportunity – and political factors, and less trust and cooperation.  The populous will most likely experience weakening communal bonds and increased animosity among economic segments of the economy – a look at the 2016 presidential race and its aftermath seems to be bearing this out.

Reflective of this economic backdrop, the nation’s politics will likely become even more bizarre and antagonistic.  It will not be surprising if this antagonism adopts a more organized form.  With social media as a resource, one can imagine an organized and militant response by disadvantaged groups.  In part, one hears this with the increase nationalistic rhetoric that is being bandied about.  The point is that the American society is reaping what it has sown. 

And most telling is what Putnam points out: most Americans are only semi-conscious of these developmental causes.  They are simply not being instructed as to these socioeconomic developments.  They know that things are not as good as they used to be, but they have little understanding of what is taking place beyond the most obvious consequences such as the loss of manufacturing jobs to low-wage workers in lesser developed nations. 

To illustrate his points, Putnam writes about two children who live a few miles apart, one a product of an advantaged family, the other of a disadvantaged situation – one can’t even use the term “family” to describe his home life.  Despite their physical proximity to each other, there is little to no chance they will ever have any contact with each other.  This is desperately different from the social world Putnam grew up in back in the 1950s.

In that earlier world, his high school had students from differing social and economic classes.  The level of interaction among the different segments of the student body was healthy and often.  This is not so true today and the level of such interaction is becoming more and more infrequent. For one thing, poorer kids are stuck in dysfunctional schools while wealthier kids are more apt to attend private schools.  The “indivisibility” of the nation is becoming a memory. 

The conditions by which civics education has been taught indicate that social capital is not being promoted.  No; civics education is not responsible for the 2008 economic collapse but it was, with other factors, complicit.  And with the overall view of how ineffective civics education has been, this blog will, in the next posting, add one more area that is related to civics education but seldom considered:  levels of criminality.

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[1] Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000).

[2] Jean M. Twenge and W. K. Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement.

[3] Bob Herbert, “Fast Track to Inequality,” New York Times, November 2, 2010, accessed March 6, 2017, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/opinion/02herbert.html? r=1&src=me&ref=homepage .

[4] Jean M. Twenge and W. K. Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement  AND  CNN, The Eighties, television documentary, produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (2016; Atlanta:  CNN, Playtone, and Herzog and Company) television.

[5] Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids:  The American Dream in Crisis (New York, NY:  Simon and Schuster, 2015).