Fight violence by shoring up institutions

If crime is down, why is it we feel less safe?

We are rapidly losing the sense of freedom and security we once enjoyed. We are wary about going out at night, muggings in shopping malls, and home invasions.

Experts give statistics on how crime has decreased over the past decade, but seem unable to see the public's increasing fear over the random and violent crime gripping our communities. The recent mass killings in our Utah downtown mall and in a Virginia college escalate that fear. Experts don't seem to realize that people don't live by averages, rather by their own perceptions of reality.

Schools, which were once a place parents could trust their children would be safe, are now exposed to bullying, harassment and violence. Parents are concerned about drugs, alcohol and gangs in schools, worried about their children being kidnapped from their yard, worried for their safety when they are out at night.

Domestic violence is a big problem. Today we see the filing of protective orders that have no meaning to individuals driven to violence who have no internal brain mechanism to be concerned with the consequences. Furthermore, once the perpetrators are in prison, the state often provides them with treatment, while the victims are left to fend for themselves.

Given the cultural and family breakdown today, it should not be a surprise that we have violent crimes committed by impulsive youths who may have little parental supervision, no community ties and a distorted sense of values. We are paying the price for the breakdown of the institutions that once provided the social controls in civil society — the family, schools and our religions. Today, we see more latchkey kids because in many cases both parents, and single parents, must hold two jobs to provide the basics, leaving children on their own to learn the socialization skills their parents have always taught. Now, children learn from the TV and the Internet what is acceptable behavior, not only from our society, but also from any society around the world.

Our courts, corrections and law enforcement institutions are overloaded dealing with the challenges parents face in socializing their children in today's fast-moving, impersonal, mobile and complex society. As a nation, we have invested in rehabilitation and incarceration efforts after the criminal has been caught, and police agencies are left to catch offenders several times over. Courts and corrections, all too often, rely on "treatment" in sentencing offenders, whose juvenile record already may be filled with psychological evaluations — the cure-all of the courts.