Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What you listed in previous post are the only ways to truly stop crime. many times kids commit crimes because they feel they have no future and live for today. Unlike many of us that know we don't want to risk our future by committing a crime, these kids do not see a future and then get a record and can't find a good job, so they turn back to crime. It's an endless cycle.
There is some truth in that.
However, the vast majority of kids from the same background don't go around holding people up at gunpoint and smashing store windows. Most of them are hardworking students who are simply trying to make their way in the world.
Only a handful decide that holdups and robberies are the way to go. That very, very small group may feel like they have no future, but they also need to know that they will probably get caught and that there will be consequences. That's where effective policing and stopping the revolving door are important.
However, the vast majority of kids from the same background don't go around holding people up at gunpoint and smashing store windows. Most of them are hardworking students who are simply trying to make their way in the world.
Only a handful decide that holdups and robberies are the way to go. That very, very small group may feel like they have no future, but they also need to know that they will probably get caught and that there will be consequences. That's where effective policing and stopping the revolving door are important.
So we just keep spending billions on prisons instead of education? Yes crime will always happen, but if society can help those that do not have help, then we can stop these issues from even happening, very much the same way we stop mass shootings. Start at the root of the problem.
So we just keep spending billions on prisons instead of education? Yes crime will always happen, but if society can help those that do not have help, then we can stop these issues from even happening, very much the same way we stop mass shootings. Start at the root of the problem.
We have way too many people in prison and that is absurd and tragic.
However, with respect to crime in the city of Atlanta, I would submit that the problem has more to with a few bad eggs than with the population in general.
The vast, overwhelming majority of Atlanta residents do not go around smashing store windows, breaking into cars and holding people up at gunpoint. That is true of residents in all neighborhoods and economic groups.
With respect to that very small group that makes up the "bad guys", yes, it is important to get to the root cause of their behavior. But in the meantime, it is also important to bring it to a halt. So long as they believe they can misbehave with virtual impunity, what's to stop it?
Location: Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, and Raleigh
2,580 posts, read 2,483,890 times
Reputation: 1614
Quote:
Originally Posted by cqholt
What you listed in previous post are the only ways to truly stop crime. many times kids commit crimes because they feel they have no future and live for today. Unlike many of us that know we don't want to risk our future by committing a crime, these kids do not see a future and then get a record and can't find a good job, so they turn back to crime. It's an endless cycle.
One of the primary reasons this city has such a crime problem is the disillusionment with this state's allowance of many at-risk youths, particularly the non-white youths, to fall through the cracks literally. DFCS and DOE both fail these youths and furthermore the state of Georgia in general by creating more balkanization of jurisdictions and service provisions. Yeah, I'm talking about the creations of more jurisdictions because some people feel some type of way that they are "different" or "better than" others. That's the fundamental flaw of this state "business-oriented" operation mindset because social services and resources are just as important if not more because this group is the state's fastest growing demographic future.
This whole poisonous concoction has essentially "spiked" the future for most of those aforementioned youths except a lucky few that comes from stable environments or familial background or wind up in a situation where a mentor guided and provided assistance from that path in the Atlanta urbanized area. That's the real reason why crime amongst non-white youths has continued to increase.
Location: Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, and Raleigh
2,580 posts, read 2,483,890 times
Reputation: 1614
The solution is the state needs to change the way it operates towards those services. This needs to be a "our future first" mindset when it comes to how these social services are operating and availability.
We have way too many people in prison and that is absurd and tragic.
However, with respect to crime in the city of Atlanta, I would submit that the problem has more to with a few bad eggs than with the population in general.
The vast, overwhelming majority of Atlanta residents do not go around smashing store windows, breaking into cars and holding people up at gunpoint. That is true of residents in all neighborhoods and economic groups.
With respect to that very small group that makes up the "bad guys", yes, it is important to get to the root cause of their behavior. But in the meantime, it is also important to bring it to a halt. So long as they believe they can misbehave with virtual impunity, what's to stop it?
I'm not sure I completely agree with that line of reasoning. I fully agree with what CQ is saying. I've been in and out of a lot of schools, and poverty has a HUGE impact on the way students learn in school and what their home life is like, and how that affects their behavior. The smartest students are many times in very bad situations at home, and a few of them manage to pull up and out, but a lot of them (as CQ mentioned) only are able to live in the present. They know they need money now, or they won't have food on the table for dinner. It's cyclical, generations of poverty one after another, especially in the South. When that is your life, you don't have much hope for the future because you've really never experienced anything better, or seen any way to "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" as a lot of people from a higher SES think is possible for everybody.
In schools where there is a high rate of poverty, gangs are often the way to make money fast. Am I saying everybody is involved in a gang? No, not at all. But I think if you had more experience working with at-risk youth, you would see that crime is more prevalent than you are saying it is among that population. And no, we can't blame them (the kids). The majority of kids I've met in situations like this are excellent kids - they work hard in school when they get a teacher that pushes them and cares for them, and they are doing what they need to do for them and their families to survive. But also remember that there are different types of crime. Not all of them involved in criminal activity, but when they are, it's not necessarily holding people up at gunpoint in Midtown. I've met too many students who feel that they need to prostitute themselves, sell drugs, break into a car, and other "petty" crimes just to be able to put food on their tables.
I don't think any of us, who can afford to have access to internet and time to post in this online community, can truly comprehend the desperation that some of these students experience on a day in and day out basis, and what we would do in those situations to be sure our families were able to survive. That is the ROOT cause of the problem, and until we own up to it and address that, nothing will be solved.
I'm not sure I completely agree with that line of reasoning. I fully agree with what CQ is saying. I've been in and out of a lot of schools, and poverty has a HUGE impact on the way students learn in school and what their home life is like, and how that affects their behavior. The smartest students are many times in very bad situations at home, and a few of them manage to pull up and out, but a lot of them (as CQ mentioned) only are able to live in the present. They know they need money now, or they won't have food on the table for dinner. It's cyclical, generations of poverty one after another, especially in the South. When that is your life, you don't have much hope for the future because you've really never experienced anything better, or seen any way to "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" as a lot of people from a higher SES think is possible for everybody.
In schools where there is a high rate of poverty, gangs are often the way to make money fast. Am I saying everybody is involved in a gang? No, not at all. But I think if you had more experience working with at-risk youth, you would see that crime is more prevalent than you are saying it is among that population. And no, we can't blame them (the kids). The majority of kids I've met in situations like this are excellent kids - they work hard in school when they get a teacher that pushes them and cares for them, and they are doing what they need to do for them and their families to survive. But also remember that there are different types of crime. Not all of them involved in criminal activity, but when they are, it's not necessarily holding people up at gunpoint in Midtown. I've met too many students who feel that they need to prostitute themselves, sell drugs, break into a car, and other "petty" crimes just to be able to put food on their tables.
I don't think any of us, who can afford to have access to internet and time to post in this online community, can truly comprehend the desperation that some of these students experience on a day in and day out basis, and what we would do in those situations to be sure our families were able to survive. That is the ROOT cause of the problem, and until we own up to it and address that, nothing will be solved.
Well said. It is hard for students to learn in school when the only meals they are getting are at school and they do not have basic necessities; clean clothes, food, etc.
I'm not sure I completely agree with that line of reasoning. I fully agree with what CQ is saying. I've been in and out of a lot of schools, and poverty has a HUGE impact on the way students learn in school and what their home life is like, and how that affects their behavior. The smartest students are many times in very bad situations at home, and a few of them manage to pull up and out, but a lot of them (as CQ mentioned) only are able to live in the present. They know they need money now, or they won't have food on the table for dinner. It's cyclical, generations of poverty one after another, especially in the South. When that is your life, you don't have much hope for the future because you've really never experienced anything better, or seen any way to "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" as a lot of people from a higher SES think is possible for everybody.
In schools where there is a high rate of poverty, gangs are often the way to make money fast. Am I saying everybody is involved in a gang? No, not at all. But I think if you had more experience working with at-risk youth, you would see that crime is more prevalent than you are saying it is among that population. And no, we can't blame them (the kids). The majority of kids I've met in situations like this are excellent kids - they work hard in school when they get a teacher that pushes them and cares for them, and they are doing what they need to do for them and their families to survive. But also remember that there are different types of crime. Not all of them involved in criminal activity, but when they are, it's not necessarily holding people up at gunpoint in Midtown. I've met too many students who feel that they need to prostitute themselves, sell drugs, break into a car, and other "petty" crimes just to be able to put food on their tables.
I don't think any of us, who can afford to have access to internet and time to post in this online community, can truly comprehend the desperation that some of these students experience on a day in and day out basis, and what we would do in those situations to be sure our families were able to survive. That is the ROOT cause of the problem, and until we own up to it and address that, nothing will be solved.
great post...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
