Community efficacy study

The NYT reported this week (and it only now shows up in the Minneapolis Star Tribune), on the research of Dr. Felton Earls. Earls is demonstrating that the “efficacy” of a community has a great impact on crime. I am fascinated by this research, because it has a lot of resonance with something we taught decades ago at the National Assault Prevention center — that it takes a community to prevent sexual assault. Apparently that is so in other crimes, too (which makes sense). Anyway, part of what I find so striking about his research is that it counter balances all of the recent emphases on neurobiological and genetics research.

“If we are to show that where you grow up is more important than your temperament or your I.Q. or your family, or even equally important, that is a major contribution to science,” Dr. Earls said. “We’re saying that community is important at a moment in science when many of the most dramatic findings are in genetics. If genetics plays a role, it’s got to be a minor role, because the community effects are very robust.”

Earls’ research is very complex, substantial, and carefully done (it included video taping miles and miles of streets and the action taking place thereon, and then analyzing it). He’s worked in Chicago and in Boston, and one of constructive things he points to in Boston is the Ten Point Coalition (based in our old neighborhood of JP), which is a group of local churches that has gotten very involved in dealing with urban issues.These are important ideas for us to share, since they point to the ways in which each of us can have very positive impacts on our own immediate contexts!