National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence

A Forum — October 27, 2000

Over thirty years ago, following the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and during a time of rising crime, President Lyndon B. Johnson formed the National Advisory Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (of 1968-69). At today’s forum, Dr. Lynn A. Curtis, President and CEO, The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, spoke about the findings of the Foundation’s thirty year update: To Establish Justice, To Insure Domestic Tranquility. Curtis indicated that, given strong economic growth and low unemployment, all appears well in the United States. However, persistent disparities in income and wealth, and several national trends the report calls injustices, contribute to a high rate of crime and violence similar to that of the late 1960s.

Curtis first compared statistics on the incidence of crime and violence in the late ‘60s to the late ‘90s. While crime has fallen from the peak of the mid-‘80s, there are still unacceptably high levels of violence in the U.S., much higher than most other industrialized nations. Rates of fear and of police reported violent crime are roughly at the same levels today as in the late ‘60s. Curtis said another contributing factor to the level and fear of violence is the increased presence of guns. Ownership of firearms is up 40% from 90 million people in the ‘60s to 200 million people today.

The foundation report also focuses on the tremendous increase in incarceration rates in the U.S. since the ‘60s. For example, collectively, the 50 states now spend more on prison building than on higher education; the opposite was true in the late ‘60s. Nationally, Curtis says, "We have more than four times the prison cells we had in the ‘60s." The report attributes only a small part of the 1993-2000 crime drop to prison building. Curtis suggested that the United States uses prison to hide away high levels of violent and drug-related crime. He observed that, if incarceration was as much a deterrent to crime as some assert, the nation would not have such a high incarceration rate and persistent high levels of crime, violence and fear.

The report found multiple examples of injustices in American society since the National Violence Commission—such as systemic racial bias in the justice system, including disproportionately harsh minority sentencing. In 1990, one in four young African American men nationwide was in prison, on probation or on parole; in 2000, it is one in three. In big cities, it is one in two. Curtis added that the young Latino male prison population is growing faster than the young African American male prison population. Curtis also cited other injustices in the United States—including high levels of child poverty (about 22%), deteriorating public schools, high inner-city unemployment rates, and racial discrimination in drug sentencing laws where sentences for crack cocaine, used disproportionately by minorities, are stricter than sentences for cocaine, used disproportionately by whites.

The United States is implementing several strategies aimed at reducing crime which, according to Curtis and the foundation report, simply do not work. These strategies, described more fully in the report, include boot camps, zero-tolerance policing, supply side economics, enterprise zones, work first policies (like the old Job Training Partnership Act for high school drop-outs), and "an over reliance on volunteerism, self-sufficiency, empowerment and ‘faith-based’ rhetoric to address serious needs." The report also describes in detail the programs that do work, according to the research that Curtis reviewed. These include Head Start, safe havens after school, full service community schools, the Quantum Opportunities Program, Job Corps, the Argus Community model in the South Bronx, San Francisco’s Delancy Street (which successfully reintegrates ex-offenders back into the community), Boston’s approach to community policing, and Arizona’s diversion of non-violent offenders out of prison and into community-based programs.

The United States has the scientific evaluation evidence and the resources to replicate programs that work to a scale equal to the dimensions of the problem. What is lacking, according to Curtis, is the kind of resources and commitment that allowed us to win a war in the Persian Gulf, including adequate staff pay, substantial training, support and equipment. Too often, he says, in community-based non-profit programs and schools, the public is told there is not enough money for staff, support services, physical plant, equipment or technology. This he called a double standard.

Curtis concluded with several pieces of advice for the audience. First, he said the United States should "stop doing things that don’t work and start doing what does work on a scale equal to the need." For instance, he blamed Congress for not providing full funding for programs such as Head Start, which currently serves only about 40% of the eligible pre-school-age population. Secondly, the country should seek multiple solutions for multiple problems. Programs addressing multiple needs often show success along a number of fronts—including varying combinations of lower crime, drugs and teen pregnancies, and improved education, training and employment. Thirdly, Curtis advocates creation of a "communicating what works movement" led by national and grassroots non-profit associations and individual leaders. For example, the Milton Eisenhower Foundation offers classes and web-based resources to train community members to take on leadership positions, effectively replicate programs, and communicate to the media.

Questions and comments from the audience included: a discussion of the importance of individual responsibilty in addition to collective/public responsibility and the role of universities in focusing on social justice issues.

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