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2002 International Association of Chiefs of Police convention, Minneapolis: Notes by Bill Bryan, CJJ board member, and Ted Gest, CJJ president * Flying while Muslim? Racial profiling after 9/11/01 Racial profiling, in forms like "driving while black," exists, but to what extent? Data like traffic-stop statistics can be compiled, but how should it be interpreted? Lorie Fridell, director of research for the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), said, "I do think it exists, but you can't measure it." Fridell noted that there may not be racial or ethnic proportionality among law violators or drivers. [Example: even if blacks are 15% of the population, that doesn't mean they are necessarily 15% of law violators or 15% of drivers.] PERF has published one book on racial profiling issues and will issue others. For its "Racially Biased Policing; a Principled Response," see its web site, www.policeforum.org Tom Johnson, a former prosecutor now active with a citizens crime watch group, said his organization found that African-American drivers were being stopped by Minneapolis police at a disproportionate rate compared with white drivers. African-Americans make up 18 percent of the Minneapolis population but represent 37 percent of the traffic stops. Johnson said 9/11 has had a "chilling effect" on public interest in racial profiling; many citizens no longer find it abhorrent. Ruben Rosario, columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and CJJ's treasurer, noted that a poll taken before 9/11 found that 81 percent surveyed wanted racial profiling stopped; a survey after 9/11 showed that 50 percent supported profiling Middle Easterners at airports. Fouzi Slisli, a member of an Arab-American antidiscrimination committee in Minnesota, admitted that he had some trepidation himself on an airplane shortly after 9/11 when he saw three Saudis sitting across the aisle. But he said that authorities need to be more civil in dealing with the Arab-American community: "They should deal with us in a rational, systematic way--a civilized respectful manner." He noted that when federal authorities questioned more than 100 men of Middle Eastern descent in Minnesota, they did so by knocking on doors for the element of surprise and by talking to neighbors. "They should have made contact by letter or phone calls and made the interviews voluntary," Slisli said. St. Paul, Mn. Police Chief William Finney admitted the reality that "police are looking at people like Fouzi," but he agreed that officers should be respectful. "I'm not trying to change their hearts," he said. "I want to change their behavior." * Terrorism: The First Amendment and Responsible Journalism -- A Delicate Balance There's often a delicate balance between an individual's right to privacy and society's need to have important information, said Jane Kirtley, a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication and former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She often has worked to help journalists obtain hard-to-come-by information, but she believes that the press should have no better access to such data than should the general public. Joel Carlson, a retired FBI agent and a member of the police chiefs organization's terrorism committee, pointed out tht law enforcement offiicials decide on how much information to release based on their accountability to their hierarchy, including prosecutors, courts and fellow officers. The news media's accountability lies with reporters' bosses, the public and journalism academia, he said. "We have different masters, tasks, procedures and goals," Carlson said. He added that in the event of a terrorist strike, law enforcement will need the media more than ever to keep the public informed. Cable News Network producer Terry Frieden noted that much information is disseminated based on personal relationships, usually a mutual trust between a reporter and a law enforcement source. He noted that it "often is not the content [of a report] but the timing that is the problem." There is also the isue of "tremendous competition" among media and consequent pressures to report information learned. Randy Furst of the Minneapolis Star Tribune cited periodic tension between security authorities and the media, citing his story about the lack of security checks at most entrances of the huge Mall of America in the Minneapolis area. But he concluded that "in the last analysis, we're all in this together." Paul McCabe, public information officer for the FBI in Minneapolis, said he tries to help news media representatives on legitimate inquiries, reaching out to visit news organization offices to meet reporters and editors. Panel members concluded that the news media and the government will always have some disagreements about what information should be made public. * Who Polices the Police? What is Excessive Force? Police accountability is a major isue that the news media are not covering well, said Samuel E. Walker, a professor and police watcher from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Indicators of police misconduct, such as frequency of citizen complaints and use-of-force incidents could be collected in databases to help judge an officer's performance, he said. The gap between the departments that do a good job of holding officers accountable and the worst departments "is wider than ever," he maintained. He added that "the departments doing a good job go unnoticed because when shootings don't occur or excessive force isn't used, that's not a story." Walker has set up a web site with more information on the issue: www.policeaccountability.org Ed Flynn, police chief in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Arlington, Va., said that powerful police officer lobby groups and unions often prevent chiefs from taking tough action against problem officers. "In many cases, state laws prohibit a chief from enforcing accountability," he said. For example, in Maryland, chiefs are not allowed to question officers about misconduct for 11 days after an incident. "In a lot of places, it takes a year to fire a [problem] officer, he said. Often, he added, police groups will work to get rid of an assertive chief by announcing a vote of no-confidence in him. Flynn's conclusion: "The public is demanding more accountability; the system is delivering less." St. Paul, Mn., Police Chief William Finney said that five percent of officers cause 60 to 80 percent of problems; he noted that he lacks the power to fire officers on his own. Without strong leadership from chiefs, officers make up their own rules of conduct and set their own standards, he said. * Suicide: Reporting Myths May Lead to a Contagion Effect Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Patrick Jamieson of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania discussed their report suggesting ways that the news media could more reponsibly report on suicide. You can see the report at www.appc.penn.org. A major concern is that reporting a graphic description of a suicide, such as saying that person who jumped to his death did so spread-eagled or curled up like a ball, could trigger "suicide contagion" or copycat suicides by readers or viewers who have psychiatric disorders. The report recommends that the news media educate the public about suicide by reporting on the likely causes for it, the warning sides, trends in rates, and recent treatment advances. Kathleen Hall Jamieson noted that contrary to many reports suggesting that suicides are unforeseen and unpreventable events, 90 percent of suicides actually are preceded by a psychiatric episode that can be treated. Unless the evidence is convincing, media should "avoid presenting suicide as an inexplicable act by an otherwise healthy individual," she said. * Crime and the Mentally Ill Mental health plays a role in many crimes--about 16 percent of prison and jail inmates report a mental illness or having stayed overnight in a mental hospital. Police officers need much more training on how to recognize and handle situations involving people who may be suffering from mental illness. Robert Johnson, chief prosecutor in Anoka, Mn. noted that many instances when mentally ill people become violent stem from their failing to take necessary medications. He said that broad institutional change in the criminal justice system is needed for a more effective response when mentally ill persons are suspected of criminal behavior. Some jurisdictions, for example, have set up "mental health courts" that specialize in cases involving mental illness. Others have instituted specially trained response teams with law enforcement and health expers who are trained to defuse dangerous situations. In 1999, the Council of State Governments set up a partnership with six organizations to form a Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project, whose report was issued in June 2002. After hearing from 100 policymakers, clinicians, and consumers, the project made 46 policy recommendations. See the full report at www.consensusproject.org 2001 American Society of Criminology convention, Atlanta: Notes by Ted Gest, CJJ president Mobilizing the military against domestic terror The U.S. military should be called in to deal with selected domestic terrorism incidents, says a criminologist who has studied the issue. Arguing that law enforcement agencies are not prepared to respond in many instances, David Klinger of the University of Missouri-St. Louis said that, "We should begin to think outside of the box." Klinger made his comments to a meeting on November 9, 2001, sponsored by Criminal Justice Journalists at the American Society of Criminology convention in Atlanta. "Law enforcement is way behind the curve" in combating some forms of modern terrorism in which a perpetrator is "willing to die in the process and kill until he is killed," said Klinger, a former police officer in Los Angeles. In such cases, he argued, a procedure should be in place for police agencies to summon appropriate military units immediately. Klinger stressed that he advocates such action only in extreme cases and does not believe in breaching that the historic American rule that the military should not supplant domestic law enforcement. Klinger recounted the 35-year history of terrorist acts on U.S. soil, starting with the 1966 shooting spree by Charles Whitman from a University of Texas tower that killed 14 and injured 45. The episode, which consumed the Austin, Tx., police department, helped give rise to the concept of creating SWAT (special weapons and tactics) teams to handle such crises. SWAT teams can have difficulty coping with incidents that are not "contained," Klinger said. He cited the 1999 massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School and a 1995 case in which a San Diego man stole a tank from a National Guard Armory and drove it down a crowded freeway. Highly trained military units would better be able to cope with such events and spare police departments the need to devote significant manpower, Klinger said. He noted in a later session at the criminology meeting that "the mindset of police departments is not to kill people"-which may be necessary in the case of terrorist acts. Military units should be involved domestically "in a narrow slice of the war being waged upon us," he said. Also at the Atlanta session, John Killorin, special agent in charge of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, called for a measured response by government authorities to acts that may or may not fit classic definitions of terrorism. "Terrorism is a motive, not an event," Killorin said. Alluding to a well-known reaction to pornography-"I know it when I see it"-Killorin urged that officials adopt a definition that requires specific "empirical elements." Killorin noted that a varied group of incidents have been labeled terrorism over the years, including violence by "skinheads," a bank robbery in Spokane and a fire at a Gap clothing store. There is no doubt that the hijackings of September 11 were terrorism, Killorin said, but a better definition of what constitutes terrorism could help guide law enforcement and other agencies in deciding on the level of response to future incidents that may be less clear. Killorin's agency
is one of those on the lookout for Eric Rudolph, who is wanted in
connection with bombings of an abortion clinic in Alabama and the
1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympic Games. Rudolph has not been
seen for more than three years; he is believed to be hiding in a
large forest area, but authorities have not seen fit to take drastic
action such as bombing the forest even though Rudolph is regarded
by some as a suspected terrorist. The history of such cases suggests that prosecutors would do best to keep the focus on legalities and stay away from trying to establish suspects' political motives, Smith said. Some cases have become "derailed" when authorities diverted to issues of motivation. Unlike typical criminal cases, in which most defendants end up pleading guilty, fewer than 40 percent of recent U.S. terrorist cases have ended up in guilty pleas. One reason is that terror suspects have been unable or unwilling to provide the "substantial assistance" to the government against people higher in the terror chain that would help spring them a reduced sentence. Smith noted that under American legal procedures, defendants are able to demand much information in the hands of prosecutors in order to help them prepare a defense. The refusal of authorities to turn over such evidence has ended some cases, he said. Contact information CJJ 5th Annual National Conference Criminal Justice Journalists held its fifth national meeting April 3-5, 2001, in Washington, D.C. More than 30 members attended the sessions, many of which were sponsored in conjunction with the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. CJJ board members Bill Wallace, Melissa Moore, Leila Knox, and Ted Gest prepared summaries of the programs. For more information, including how to reach sources, message Ted Gest, cjj@reporters.net, or call him at 202-296-8444. Summaries of Programs: CRIME PREVENTION: WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN'T It's easy to tout a crime prevention idea that sounds logical. Proving that it works is another matter. An international group of scholars called the Campbell Collaboration is putting social programs to the test, reviewing all studies that have been conducted on the remedy in question. Campbell's Crime & Justice Group covered six areas in a briefing in the Capitol for CJJ members and congressional staff. A brief summary:
ADVANCES IN CRIME MAPPING Mapping crime data using software called GIS (geographic information systems) is a great tool for putting crime in perspective and reporting on trends, Deb Halpern of WFLA-TV in Tampa said in a CJJ session at the Police Foundation. Halpern, assistant news director of the station and a CJJ board member, said WFLA-TV uses software from a firm called ESRI. The station is following the lead of another television station in developing a website where users can look at crime trends in their own neighborhoods. Kim Rossmo of the Police Foundation showed how GIS can reveal spatial patterns of crimes and criminals, and can aid investigators in "social geographic profiling." He demonstrated how certain crimes, such as rape, may be committed within a limited radius of where the suspect lives. Maps can help to pinpoint possible suspects. Crime maps also can be used to show the difference between public perceptions of crime and the reality in certain neighborhoods. One map showed that a neighborhood where crime was the lowest was the area in one city where people are worried the most about crime. ESRI's John Calkins, who consults with CBS's police drama "The District," showed how the program's story lines are built around real crime data from Washington, D.C. All kinds of data can be mapped, and several different types of maps can be created to show crime trends. It was a little overwhelming, but very cool. The Police Foundation publishes a newsletter on crime mapping and follows the field closely. For more information, get in touch with Dr. Rachel Boba at the foundation, (202) 721-9777 or rboba@policefoundation.org, or Mary Malina at (202) 721-9765. The foundation's web site is www.policefoundation.org. ESRI, based in Redlands, Ca., can be reached at www.esri.com ONLINE ACCESS TO COURT, LAW ENFORCEMENT DATA Federal courts are discussing which court files should be made available on the web. The project is quite an undertaking, but more than 2 million court documents have been put on the Internet at various prototype courts around the country, said federal courts spokesman Dick Carelli. The U.S. Judicial Conference is developing a policy for putting documents on the Internet. The conference has held a hearing and received public comment on the issue. Carelli said the media has well represented. Many privacy issues need to be considered in putting the documents on the Internet. For example, the courts are considering how to prevent disclosure of personal information like Social Security and bank account numbers. There also is a fear that people will use electronic files to dig up dirt on their neighbors. Proponents of putting court files on the web, like Washington, D.C. media attorney Robert Becker, argue that the "spying" novelty will wear off, Obtaining information from the documents via the web, Becker noted, would reduce the need to rely on talking to attorneys or making long trips to court clerks' offices. The Judicial
Conference's recommendations could come out as early as September.
It is likely that all federal courts will adopt them. More information
on the issue can be found at www.privacy.uscourts.gov Rebecca Daugherty
of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (www.rcfp.org)
told CJJ about current deliberations among federal and state officials
aimed at agreeing on guidelines for public access to law enforcement
records. It is not clear how the issue will play out. In some areas,
online access could be a boon to journalists and the general public.
In others, jurisdictions may take the opportunity to take a look
at basic policies and decide that citizens and the media still must
visit criminal justice agencies to gain access to records. ETHICS AND POLICE REPORTING A CJJ session
on "New Challenges in Reporting on Law Enforcement" featured
Sheldon Greenberg, director of the Johns Hopkins University Police
Executive CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN THE FEDERAL COURTS How to get the
most out of the federal court system and its various components
was the topic in a CJJ session at the Thurgood Marshall Judiciary
Building. Particularly useful was a discussion of where to find
information on the federal judiciary's websites. Steven Schlesinger,
the chief of statistics for the Administrative Office of the U.S.
Courts, directed journalists to the judiciary's home page, www.uscourts.gov.
A key source is the PACER docket system, which tracks cases in every
federal court jurisdiction. PACER offers online access to the full
names of parties involved in criminal and civil cases, their attorneys
(plus their addresses and phone numbers), case status information
and the federal case numbers needed to pull the actual files at
the relevant court clerk's office. WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS WORKSHOP A session after
a reception at the Washington Post featured a lively discussion
among journalists and lawyers of wrongful convictions and how to
investigate them. The session was moderated by Brooke Masters, a
Post reporter who has written about suspects who were convicted
despite their innocence. Featured panelists were Richmond (Virginia)
Times-Dispatch reporter Frank Green, Marvin Miller, a criminal defense
attorney from northern Virginia, Christopher Amolsch of the Washington-area
board of directors of the Innocence Project, and Robert Johnson,
a Minnesota prosecutor and president of the National District Attorneys
Association. Green noted signs of a possibly wrongful conviction:
that it rests in large part on a confession, the word of a jailhouse
snitch, or on an eyewitness. Is the accused person mentally retarded
or mentally ill? Other advice from Green: "Go over the case
with the original prosecutor and defense attorney, not just the
lawyers handling the appeals. Evaluate the credibility of those
working on behalf of the condemned inmate, not just the inmate.
Are the supporters involved emotionally? Do you catch them in small
lies?" Panelists agreed that the key to any successful investigation
of a possible wrongful conviction is to maintain a degree of skepticism,
both about the prosecution case and about the statements of the
person who has been convicted. RACIAL PROFILING CJJ examined
racially motivated policing - singling out suspects for detention
or questioning simply because of their ethnic identity - in a discussion
led by CJJ Treasurer Ruben Rosario of the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer
Press. Lorie Fridell, the director of research for the Police Executive
Research Forum (PERF) outlined steps her organization is taking
to try to get a handle on the extent and degree of racial profiling
among police departments. She said even the greenest rookie cop
knows that probable cause is required to make an arrest or stop,
so coming up with an operational definition of racial profiling
that isolates bias as a motivating factor is a critical part of
the effort. "Even a racist officer will say that he isn't stopping
people solely because of race," she explained. "And in
the narrow sense, he is right." With federal funds, PERF is
developing guidelines to analyze and interpret vehicle and pedestrian
stop data collected by law enforcement agencies in the racial profiling
context. The project, due for completition this spring, will include
recommendations for agencies in such areas as anti-biased policing
policies, recruitment, training, and minority community outreach.
For more information, get in touch with Fridell at (202) 466-7820,
x249, or lfridell@policeforum.org CRIME POLICE IN CONGRESS AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION A CJJ-Academy
of Criminal Justice Sciences program featured a discussion of major
criminal justice policy issues facing Congress in the first year
of the George W. Bush administration. Speakers were Representatives
Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Robert Scott (D-Virginia) who, while stressing
bipartisan cooperation as the two top ranking members of the House
Crime Subcommittee, gave starkly different assessments of where
U.S. crime policy was heading. REPORTING ON JUVENILE CRIME CJJ members and criminologists heard from the co-author of a new report critical of how the media cover juvenile crime. Vincent Schiraldi of the Justice Policy Institute, said that the study, titled "Off Balance," indicated that news reports tend to support the popular misconception that juvenile crime is on the increase, thus increasing public hysteria about young offenders. Schiraldi said news organizations should strive to put stories about such aberrant events as schoolyard shootings into context, and look into factors that underlie other types of juvenile crimes, including alcoholism, family histories and other background information that helps to explain why they occur - and why they are not commonplace. "There is a disconnect between what people believe about (juvenile) crime and what is really happening," he said, calling on journalists to do more investigative and interpretive reporting on the issue instead of giving particular incidents disproportionate and sensational coverage.See the full report at www.buildingblocksforyouth.org
The FBI's top public affairs specialists explained how the bureau does its job and fielded questions or criticisms from reporters. John Collingwood, the bureau's Assistant Director for Public and Congressional Affairs, described recent changes in FBI jurisdiction and top law enforcement priorities, including a shift from the investigation of such traditional FBI crimes as bank robbery and kidnapping to transnational crimes involving syndicated criminal organizations, "cybercrime" and terrorism. "Almost every case we are working now has some international aspect to it," he said. "That's mostly just in the last ten years or so. The change has been phenomenal." Collingwood said that computer related crime was a particular area of growing concern. "The new technology allows people to commit crimes in the U.S. from anywhere else in the world," he said. "It's literally a brand new area for us. And it is one where nobody is sure of what the implications will be." The bureau's public information specialists got an FBI-style grilling from the reporters, who asked why the agency is reluctant to release information that cannot possibly compromise investigations, and why reporters have to call Washington, D.C., to get information their local bureau spokespeople should be able to release. In some cases, such as photographs of persons named in indictments, the bureau typically must get permission of the U.S. Attorney handling the case. Some journalists complain that delays in obtaining such clearance have forced them to miss deadlines. The spokesmen said they would try to eliminate some informational roadblocks called into question by reporters at the briefing. They also said the bureau was trying to develop a more cooperative relationship with the media. As one example, they noted that the FBI had invited reporters to participate in training exercises organized around such scenarios as terrorist attacks in which disseminating information to the public would help insure citizens' safety.The FBI's national press office can be reached at (202) 324-3691. Unit chief Bill Carter is at (202) 324-8787 JERRY
LEE CENTER DEDICATION, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
MEETING
WITH THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY Keeping reporters at bay in prison California is sticking with its restrictions on media access to prison inmates despite protests from the news media, inmates and their attorneys, and in some cases prison employees. That was the message to CJJ from Robert Martinez, communications director for the California prison system. Since 1996, California has barred journalists from bringing electronic equipment and even basic tools like notebooks and pens to interview specified inmates among its population of 162,500. . Instead, journalists must abide by the rules governing any visitors. Inmates may be interviewed randomly in prison tours arranged by authorities. Martinez gets about a dozen requests for access weekly, two thirds of them from news media and others from media seeking to do documentaries or other coverage not involving news. He argued that the rules are "reasonable" ways to insure "safety and security," nothing that inmates still have access to the media through telephone calls and visits by reporters under the same conditions as family visitors. California's rules, which mirror those being adopted in some other states, came under attack from other speakers. Steve Fama of the Prison Law Office, which represents inmates, called the restrictions a "sophisticated tool to control information." He cited a 1993 "60 Minutes" story about abuses and illnesses of inmates at the maximum security prison at Pelican Bay as an example of a story that is difficult if not impossible for reporters to tell under the curbs on approaching inmates. Journalist Peter Sussman, who has followed California prison conditions closely, agreed that "many stories are not being told" because the rules "tend to keep out skeptical observers." Sussman asserted that "prisoners are being punished for trying to get stories to the press." Stories about abuse of prisoners at California's Corcoran prison did emerge, but in some cases details were available only because a former Corcoran inmate who was in federal custody could be interviewed. The media position was supported by a possibly unlikely source, Mike Jiminez of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which represents about 30,000 prison employees. Asserting that journalists are the "conscience of society," Jiminez said the "media need to be more involved" in reporting what goes on behind prison bars. More attention by reporters to poor conditions "would lead to wholesale changes," he said. Regular television coverage on prisons "would open [the public's] eyes." Jiminez said that 99 percent of those he represents do a fine job, but that still leaves 300 or more "who may not have the best motives." Bills that would restore full media access to California prisons have been passed by the legislature but vetoed by governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis. Jiminez noted
that one argument used against increasing media access is to "keep
victims from being victimized [further] by raising convicts to celebrity
status." Sussman rejected that position, saying it just encourages
some reporters to get information about cases from other sources,
sometimes ending up
Some key judges and prosecutors are dubious about a new California plan to require treatment rather than jail for low-level drug offenders. The California measure, known as Proposition 36, was approved by voters on November 7. Advocates succeeded in getting a similar plan passed in Arizona and are likely to press for approval in other states. The week after Proposition 36 passed, CJJ heard from Thomas Orloff of Alameda County, Ca., president of the California District Attorneys Association, and Judge Stephen Manley of Santa Clara, president of the California Association of Drug Court Professionals. Both organizations opposed Proposition 36, predicting that it might undermine drug courts where many offenders are sent to treatment under the threat of incarceration. Prosecutor Orloff said the proposition may produce "absolute chaos" by removing suspects' incentive to plead guilty. Because a vast majority of drug cases end in guilty pleas, demands for trials could overwhelm the courts, Orloff said. In a jurisdiction like his that will not be able to handle 600 more trials each year that Proposition 36 might produce, many cases will end up being dismissed and the defendants will get no treatment, Orloff said. Proposition 36 would allocate more than $120 million each year, but that would be insufficient for the potential 36,000 cases under its provisions, Judge Manley said. He asserted that the proposition was misleading by implying that it was aimed at sparing first-time offenders from going behind bars. "It is hard to get sentenced to prison for simple possession," Manley said. The proposition passed after a $3.8-million campaign spearheaded by philanthropist George Soros and several associates. Opponents could muster only $400,000. Its prospects were aided by an apparent shift in public opinion. "There has been a drop in support for the punitive or 'get tough' approach," Tom Smith of the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago told the San Francisco Chronicle. Why is crime dropping? The primary
reason for the decline in violent crime since 1994 has been the
waning of the crack market and a related drop in handgun violence
among young black men, Joel Wallman of the Harry Frank Guggenheim
Foundation told CJJ. "The arrival of crack (in the early 1980s)
was followed fairly shortly by the rise of violence in urban markets,"
said Wallman, who co-edited with criminologist Alfred Blumstein
"The Crime Drop in America." The book was published in
the fall of 2000 by Cambridge University Press. The falloff in violence since then has largely been a function of crack's decline in popularity (as well as police policies directly aimed at eliminating the crack cocaine market), less risky employment opportunities connected to the recent economic boom, and law enforcement efforts designed to remove handguns from the population most likely to use them. Drug researcher Bruce Johnson of National Development and Research Institutes, who studies drug abuse trends in New York City, cited "a most remarkable transformation" among inner-city youths born in the 1970s and reaching adulthood in the 1990s. What he calls the Blunt Generation (after marijuana blunts) "clearly do not want to emulate their parents, older siblings, close relatives, or acquaintances who were ensnared by crack or heroin." Other speakers -- including Richard Rosenfeld of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, John Eck of the University of Cincinnati, and William Spelman of the University of Texas noted a variety of other apparent causes of falling crime rates, including the aging of the baby boomer population and the development of aggressive new strategies for stemming domestic violence that appear to have resulted in a dramatic drop in spousal homicides. Spelman concluded that the rise in imprisonment totals might account for 25 percent of the drop in crime. Eck, reviewing reforms in policing, declared that "there is little evidence that generic changes in policing are responsible for recent drops in violent crime." He believes that some of the strategies that have received the most attention, like New York City's Compstat and the "zero-tolerance" policies practiced in various cities "are the least plausible candidates for contributing the reduction in violent crime." Perhaps the most intriguing hypothesis was offered by Rosenfeld, who suggested that falling violence levels in almost every demographic group might be the result of a "civilizing process" that has been slowly spreading through U.S. society. Saying there has appears to be "an increasing intolerance on the part of adults for interpersonal violence in resolving disputes," Rosenfeld added that the phenomenon appears to be spreading to other demographic segments. "Something like that might account in part for the drop in homicide rates in the United States," he said.
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