Solutions to Detroit's Crime Problem???

[mwilbert]

I'm skeptical that jobs are the solution. Ignoring the overwhelming probability that there aren't going to be significantly more jobs in the area for the foreseeable future, the truth is that there used to be more jobs, but there was still plenty of crime. Jobs are good, but the people in criminal population and its feeder system aren't on the first-hired list, nor does the Detroit educational system prepare the vast majority of young people for meaningful work. In the long run you could imagine that better availability of jobs might change the environment, and the incentives of the population, and lead to improved behavior, but there we are talking a multi-generational timeframe.

So if we can't easily increase the availability and desirability of the option of legitimate work, what we need to do is decrease the availability and desirability of criminal work. I would commend the writings of Mark Kleiman to your attention. You can get his When Brute Force Fails in ebook form for free [[no, I don't know if it is legal; I did send him a note telling him it was out there) at http://ebooks-freedownload.com/2010/...have-less.html