6 Comments

I recently read Jarrod Shanahan’s book Captives: How Rikers Island took New York City Hostage. Like your writing, it is both dispiriting and enlightening. So sad to think how little has changed.

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Thank you for your writing on this subject. The need for more precise language in all journalism is needed to counteract wasteful spending and fear based policy decisions. Do you publish in newspapers?

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Sometimes! I also work with a lot of journalists behind the scenes, as with a lot of advocates to get their work published.

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Hello. I love your newsletter.

You often reference the idea that “we” (which I think means something like “people knowledgeable about social science”) know what the root causes of police reported crime are and proven ways to address them. But personally, I don’t know much about these things. I know that there is strong evidence in favor of eg housing people who lack housing, direct cash transfers, improving healthcare access, etc.

But I don’t know much about how things work and interact. I dont feel I have much of a starting point to think about questions like: How and when can “inequality” be said to cause crime? Do some types of inequality matter more than others? Do some kinds of social investments “stand on their own” whereas others are only effective in communities that already have XYZ resources available? Etc

I wonder if you or another reader could point me to any resources to get me started.

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Great point! Here is a document we prepared that starts to collect scientific evidence about safety, but we are working on something much more comprehensive in the coming months. https://civilrightscorps.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Getting-Smart-On-Safety.pdf

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Hi there! I'm relatively new to Substack, but I LOVE birds and I love sharing fun facts about them.

If you have the time, please check out my blog and give me a follow or share! :)

Thanks in advance! <3

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