"LUDWIG: But nobody has that button to push to make the 400 million guns in America disappear any time soon. There's a different thing that we can do, which is try and address the violence part of this."
He describes programs that actually work to reduce violence:
"MA: One strategy is simply to teach people. So, for example, there's this program for middle and high school boys called Becoming a Man. And basically, what they do is help boys learn what are called social cognitive skills - how to, you know, regulate their emotions and de-escalate conflicts. And Jens and his colleagues have studied the Chicago branch of this program. And what they found was boys who went through it were less likely to be arrested for carrying guns and about 50% less likely to be arrested for a violent offense.
"LUDWIG: Which is a huge reduction.
"MA: Strategy two - help change people's environments. And this can be illustrated by a study Jens points to that included researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, like many Rust Belt cities, has a lot of vacant abandoned lots, and they worked with the city to raise money and hold a lottery to choose which of these lots would be cleaned up and converted into pocket parks.
"LUDWIG: And the first thing that they could see is that people were way more likely to be out in public when scary vacant lot is turned into a charming little pocket park. So that's getting more people out and about so that they can basically serve as eyes on the street to help de-escalate things, right? And the second thing they can see in the police data is that there's a really big reduction in shootings around those areas. You know, depending on the neighborhood that you're looking at, these are, like, 10- to 30% reductions in shootings. And so the solutions are not what we thought. We can see that it's much more fixable. Let's see the problem for what it is, and, like, let's get going starting yesterday."
So, if the "yutes" have enough social interaction that does not emphasize shooting and violence, and a social structure that helps them acquire the awareness and social skills to achieve that, and most of the places in the areas they live in do not appear wild, abandoned, and lawless, shootings, as well as other violent crimes are greatly reduced.
ReplyDeleteTo which I can only add that if they gain experience using guns in an adult, responsible manner, so that they no longer view them as magic wands giving the holder power and the key to all the things they want, violence will reduce even further. I'm picturing target shooting with medals like the old high school rifle team competitions.
I forget where I read it, but someone said that only the gangsters learn to shoot people. The military trains men to shoot on command. The civilian target shooting culture trains people to not shoot at people.