Blog Jan 5, 2009
Remembering Lloyd Ohlin
The death of Lloyd Ohlin in December 2008 was a great loss to the juvenile justice reform world because he was a scholar and a reformer. A University of Chicago trained sociologists, Professor Ohlin was best known for his seminal work Delinquency and Opportunity, which he co-authored with Richard Cloward another prominent sociologist. Published in 1960, the book is considered a classic because it was a thorough examination of the influence of social conditions such as poverty on…
Blog Jan 5, 2009
The Trouble in Antioch
As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren, the Associated Press reported on December 30. As Antioch’s black population escalated sharply over the last decade to 16% of the city’s 101,000 residents in 2007, “longtime homeowners complained that the new arrivals brought crime and…
Blog Dec 31, 2009
Drug War Update, the year 2008 in review
As far as the war on drugs is concerned, as far as 2008 is concerned we simply conclude that “the beat goes on.” More than $50.8 billion was spent on this never-ending campaign, with the states spending about 60% of the money. Almost 1.9 million were arrested for drug offenses during the year, 831,000 for marijuana alone, mostly possession. Almost 11,000 were incarcerated as a result of their arrest and conviction . As everyone knows, race and gender are of critical importance in…
Blog Dec 30, 2009
Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans Returning Home — Is this Vietnam Revisited or Vietnam Surpassed?
Returning Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are confronting unemployment, housing unavailability, domestic violence, substance abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injuries. Regardless of the number of tours in a war zone these veterans have served, their second war begins following discharge from the military — the war that begins when they return home. Although many of the challenges facing Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are similar to those confronted by Vietnam veterans…
Blog Dec 30, 2009
Do Black Teens Need More Policing?
Why do the news media adore James Alan Fox? He’s never been right. The Northeastern University criminologist perpetuates fossilized 19th century demographic dogmas that measure crime as a function of dark-skinned youth in the population, inflammatory racialized quips branding nonwhite teenagers as “sociopaths” and “superpredators,” and 25 years of horrendously wrong crime predictions. Now Fox and colleagues are back with another media-splashed study (conveniently…