Look for "it ain't what it is" stories. Find stories that expose the real truth behind statistics and commonly held beliefs. For example, one statistic often cited is that piloting an airplane (commercial aviation) is the third most dangerous profession in America. But look behind the numbers and you will find the real truth. It is not airline pilots or even recreational pilots who are dying. It is the high-risk piloting that you would expect is driving the numbers. CNN/Money explained:
Another often owner-operated job -- commercial pilot -- comes in third on the list of the country's most dangerous jobs, with 70 fatalities per 100,000 workers.
Most pilot fatalities come from general aviation; bush pilots, air-taxi pilots, and crop-dusters die at a far higher rate than airline pilots. Again, Alaskan workers skew the profession's data; recent National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) stats indicate that they have a fatality rate four times higher than those in the lower 48.
"Alaskan pilots have a one-in-eight chance of dying during a 30-year career," says George Conway of NIOSH. "That's huge."
National polls show that adult Americans believe that half of all violent crimes are committed by juveniles. The real number is about 13%. News stories concentrate on crime and danger in schools. But out of 54 million children attending school, about a dozen children a year die at school and only one in ten schools reports any serious crime each year. (Source: Violence and Dicipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools, National Center on Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.)
Juvenile crime. Polls reveal that 62 percent of Americans believe juvenile crime is on the increase. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, there was a 56 percent decline in juvenile homicides between 1993 and 1998, a 37 percent decline in violent crime, and a 14 percent decline in overall youth crime. Remember to consider appropriate standards for naming -- and not naming -- juveniles.
The St. Petersburg Times recently did stories about children as young as seven years old being taken to jail for crimes that they committed. Get inside your juvenile justice system. Spend even a day with a juvenile officer to see what he or she sees. Spend a day with a juvenile judge. Who is locked up? How old are they? What is Christmas like in a juvenile jail?
Bad checks. Find out who is writing the most bad checks. Retailers get slammed by bad checks this time of year, which is why they demand so many forms of identification and so much personal information when you write a check. Spend time with a small retailer to see what a hassle it is to get deadbeats to pay up.
Speeders fight back. Speedtrap.org exposes the nation's (and Michigan's) worst speed traps. Do you know what happens to speeding ticket money in your area? In many cities and towns, speeding ticket fees support judges' retirement funds. Is this a conflict of interest?
How do cases get bargained? How many? What percent? Give examples. Is there a time of day or day of the week when criminals get a better deal? Many times, late in the day or when jails are fuller, the deals get sweeter. "More than 90 percent of convictions come from negotiated pleas," says Nolo, a publisher of legal resource books, "which means that fewer than 10 percent of criminal cases result in a trial. And though some still view plea bargains as secret, sneaky arrangements that are antithetical to the people's will, the federal government and many states have written rules that explicitly set out how plea bargains may be arranged and accepted by the court."
Here's a summary on plea bargaining. And here's an example of a good story on plea bargains.
Who are the prostitutes of your town? A recent study of prostitutes in Nashville shows virtually ALL had been sexually abused as children, 90 percent were addicted to some drug (alcohol, crack), many had children, and the average age of their first sexual experience was 14. Ninety percent of all teen prostitutes were sexually abused. (Here are some of those stats.) Is your community spending money on police trying to fight prostitutes? Have they considered spending it on social workers and drug treatment instead?
Don't just report on wrecks. Find out what makes certain streets and intersections dangerous. Here is a national index.
America's safest and most dangerous cities. Take a look at this list.
Slumlords. Who are the biggest slumlords in your community? How do they get away with it? What frustrations do code inspectors have citing the same people time after time? Who has the power to keep the regulations as they are? Who benefits from the system being weak?
Children of crime. If daddy is in prison, Junior stands a better chance of heading there too. Two million children nationwide have parents incarcerated and the number has increased 50 percent since 1991, according to the Child Welfare League of America, an advocacy group.
The League says:
- The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that 2.3 children are affected by the 1.1 million parents incarcerated in prisons or jails, up from 500,000 children in 1991. 45
- More than 7 million children have a parent under some form of correctional supervision. 46
- With the nation's annual average incarcerated population growing at a rate of 3.8 percent annually, the number of children with parents in prison will likely continue to increase. 47
- Racial disparity in children affected by incarceration: 48
- African-American children, 7.0 percent
- Hispanic children, 2.6 percent
- White children, 0.8 percent
- Fifty-eight percent of children are younger than 10. Their average age is eight. 49
- Children with Incarcerated Fathers
- Ninety percent of children with incarcerated fathers are living with their mothers. 50
- Thirteen percent are living with grandparents. 51
- Five percent are living with relatives or other friends. 52
- Two percent are living in a foster home or institution. 53
- Children with Incarcerated Mothers
- More than half of children with incarcerated mothers are living with their grandparents. 54
- One quarter are living with other relatives or friends. 55
- One quarter are living with their fathers. 56
- Ten percent are living in a foster home or institution. 57
- Children with Incarcerated Parents and the Child Welfare System
- Approximately 10 percent of the children of female prisoners and 2 percent of the children of male prisoners are in a foster home or institution. 58
- We don't know how many of these children were already in the child welfare system when their parents became incarcerated--and how many entered the system specifically because no one was able to care for them when their parents were incarcerated.
Women in prison. According to the Independent Television Service:
The female prison population has exploded in the past two decades, mainly due to mandatory sentencing laws for drug offenses. Three times the number of women have been put behind bars in the last 10 years, over 75 percent of whom have children.. Nationally, most of these inmates are young, unmarried women of color with few job skills and significant substance-abuse problems, often incarcerated on drug convictions. Yet when a mother is arrested, there is no specific public policy nor routine process to coordinate what happens to the children, even immediately after childbirth. Many women in prison claim that separation from their children is the most difficult part of their punishment.
You can find tons of resources on the issue here.
The following statistics were compiled by the Child Welfare League of America:
- At the end of 2002, 96,099 women were under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, an increase of 1.9 percent from 2001, compared with a 1.4 percent increase for men.
- Since 1995, the number of women inmates has grown at an average annual rate of 5.4 percent, higher than the 3.6 percent average increase for male inmates.
- Family Characteristics and Background
- The typical female offender comes from a single-parent home in which other family members have been incarcerated. One in five has lived in a family foster home or group care facility while growing up.
- Nearly six in 10 women in state prisons report having experienced physical or sexual abuse in the past; for many, the abuse occurred before age 18.
- Most women in prison have limited education and poor employment skills; less than half have completed high school.
- Incarcerated Women and Drugs
- In 1996, more than one-third of female offenders were serving time for drug-related offenses.
- From 1990 to 1996, the number of women incarcerated for drug-related offenses doubled.
- Sixty-five percent of women in prison report having used drugs regularly.
- Incarcerated Mothers
- Approximately 75 percent of incarcerated women are mothers, and two-thirds have children under age 18.
- Seventy-two percent of women prisoners with children under age 18 lived with those children before entering prison.
- Six percent of women entering prison are pregnant. 22
- From 1990 to 2000, the number of mothers in prison grew 87 percent, while fathers increased by 61 percent. 23
- Fifty-four percent of mothers in state prisons said they never had visits from their children. 24
- Sixty-five percent of mothers report using drugs in the month before the offense. 25
- Forty-three percent of mothers report being under the influence of drugs when committing their crime. 26
- Twenty-nine percent of mothers report committing their crime under the influence of alcohol. 27
- Twenty-three percent of mothers report indications of mental illness. 28
- Eighteen percent of mothers report having been homeless in the year before arrest. 29
Prison hospice. Take a look at this story from The Advocate in Baton Rouge. The story is about inmates who run the prison hospice program for other prisoners.
Children of crime. Look at the effects of daddy or mommy going to jail. Most communities have social services agencies that work with children and families of inmates.
Coaches who prey on kids. The coaching profession has one of the highest rates of sexual-misconduct complaints, according to experts. According to a Seattle Times analysis of Washington state records, teachers who coach are three times more likely to be accused of and investigated for sexual misconduct by the state than noncoaching teachers. The Seattle Times published a four-part series, "Coaches Who Prey" (Dec. 14-17, 2003). It exposes the failure of school districts, the state, and private athletic leagues to deal with sexual-misconduct complaints against coaches.
The findings? "Over the past decade, 159 coaches in Washington have been fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape." Yet "at least 98 of these coaches continued to coach or teach." Districts pass problem coaches to other districts while the state education agency drop complaints or drags out investigations for years. The Times found that Washington teachers who coach are more than three times as likely to be investigated for sexual misconduct than non-coaching teachers.
Elderly inmates. Elderly inmates over 60 years old now represent just more than one percent of all inmates. In the next 20 years, according to the California Department of Corrections, they will represent more than one-tenth of the total prison population -- AN EXPLOSIVE GROWTH. Prison populations are getting gray. Many maximum-security units are studying geriatric wards, physical therapy, and special food. Senior citizen inmates will become more common as sentences get longer and the feds propose sentencing with no parole.
Beating the drug test. Can you believe it? Urine for sale. How much do local businesses and government spend on urine tests and how reliable are they? Is there any proof these tests make the workplace safer? (Check out this story from ABC News.)
When is the last time you looked at graffiti? Great cops can read graffiti and know what is going on in the gang world. The City of Minneapolis has a page dedicated to the issue.
The website says:
Graffiti costs landowners tons of money to clean up. Even when cleanup is not expensive, it is a headache and the landowners do not dare leave it up because it will invite more.
- It costs America more than $8 billion per year (PDF) just to clean up graffiti.
- Immediate removal — within 24-48 hours — is the key to successful graffiti prevention.
- There are four types of graffiti — tagging, satanic/hate, gang, and generic (non-threatening messages like "Bobby loves Suzy" or "Class of 2000"). Tagging graffiti is more ornate while gang graffiti uses symbols.
- It is a common misperception that most graffiti is done by gangs when in fact gangs are responsible for less than 10 percent of graffiti.
- Graffiti vandals represent every social, ethnic, and economic background. Suburban males commit approximately 50 percent of graffiti vandalism from pre-teen to early 20s.
- The average age of the arrested graffiti vandal is 17-18, with an overall broad range of 8-54.
- Community paintbrush murals are rarely defaced by graffiti and instill a sense of pride among those who live nearby.
- There are four primary motivating factors for graffiti vandalism: fame, rebellion, self-expression, and power.
- Getting the media to publish photos and videotape of graffiti is often the ultimate fame for graffiti vandals.
What do the signs mean? Here is a glossary.
Justice delayed, justice denied. A series from The (Louisville) Courier-Journal:
The Journal spent eight months looking at the state's criminal-justice system and found that some felony cases took years to arrive at convictions or acquittals, while others lingered so long that they were eventually dismissed for lack of prosecution. And the pattern continues today.
The newspaper found that more than 2,000 indictments statewide have been pending for more than three years.
The newspaper examined court records in nine Kentucky counties, looked at the state's own statistics for all 120 counties, and sent surveys to judges, prosecutors or court clerks in each of the counties. Interviews and the survey turned up frequent disagreement over procedure and occasional calls for reform.
The paper found a county where more than 600 cases have been dismissed for lack of prosecution during the past eight years.
It found that a long-standing impasse in one county over whose job it was to keep cases moving resulted in legal paralysis, with hundreds and hundreds of cases backlogged over the past 20 years.
And it found a three-county circuit where more than 250 cases sat for years without being presented to a grand jury. Many of those cases are now being considered by grand juries, which have issued indictments in some and not others.
The newspaper found that although Kentucky prides itself on having a modern, efficient court system, its own statistics and some national ones paint a different picture.
The investigation also showed that some ways the system could work better are already in use in many other states and some Kentucky counties, largely due to the initiative of individual prosecutors and judges.
Unsupervised visits for mental patients. Back in December 2003, John Hinckley, Jr., won a court victory. A federal judge ruled that Hinckley will be allowed to leave the mental hospital where he has been confined for 20 years in order to go on unsupervised visits with his parents. (Read the actual order here -- PDF.)
Just because the visits are called unsupervised does not mean somebody won't be watching. In this case, the Secret Service, which continues to monitor Hinckley, would be informed of any trips and would be free to keep track of him. Still, you should read what readers of the WashingtonPost.com have to say about this. They are furious.
Get Local
How does unsupervised visitation work in your county/state? Who is currently in such a program? How important is it to those involved? How do their victims/victim families feel about such visits? What do we know about whether people who commit crimes while mentally ill are likely to commit more crimes?
I asked my Poynter colleagues Jill Geisler and Roy Peter Clark what they thought the story was out of the Hinckley decision. Roy said there may be a story worth exploring in the question of whether Hinckley was treated more harshly than any other person would have been treated for shooting somebody who did not die.
Jill suggested you look at a couple of issues, including mental illness through the eyes of a parent who sees their kid through treatment –- or the lack of available treatment.
What is the truth about how likely mentally ill people are to be criminally violent?
Find statistics here.
The key in the Hinckley case may be this:
Individuals with severe psychiatric disorders who are being treated are not more likely to be violent than the general population. Studies by NIMH have reported that approximately 40 percent of individuals with severe psychiatric disorders are not receiving treatment in any given year (Regier et al., 1993).
Somewhere around half of all individuals with severe mental illnesses have received no treatment for their illnesses in the previous 12 months.
Here is a great resource page.
This may mean that the real issue for us is not the John Hinckleys of the world who have to file an extensive plan with the court to get out of the mental hospital, but the real danger is the large and growing number of severely mentally ill in your community who get no care at all.
Additionally, they are at risk themselves of being victimized.
Last July, Alicia Aebersold, Director of Communications, Treatment Advocacy Center, Arlington, Va., sent me a couple of useful links about the connection between mental illness and murder. Her center advocates assisted outpatient treatment for the mentally ill.
The New York State Office of Mental Health released a report indicating that Kendra's Law is a stunning success. The report found that of those placed in six months of assisted outpatient treatment under New York's Kendra's Law:
- 77 percent fewer were hospitalized
- 85 percent fewer experienced homelessness
- 83 percent fewer were arrested
- 85 percent fewer were incarcerated
Aebersold writes:
All but nine states have some form of assisted outpatient treatment on the books, but many don't use it, despite statistics like these that show it works. And about half of states require someone to be dangerous before the courts can intervene. Which, as we see over and over, often means they are determined to be "dangerous" after someone is hurt.
Here is a collection of state laws and a database of tragedies, searchable by state, to help you localize the story.
More Resources:
