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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Story of a Girl, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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1. Education and crime over the life cycle

By Giulio Fella and Giovanni Gallipoli


Crime is a hot issue on the policy agenda in the United States. Despite a significant fall in crime levels during the 1990s, the costs to taxpayers have soared together with the prison population. The US prison population has doubled since the early 1980s and currently stands at over 2 million inmates. According to the latest World Prison Population List (ICPS, 2013), the prison population rate in 2012 stood at 716 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants, against about 480 in the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation – the two OECD countries with the next highest rates – and against a European average of 154. The rise in the prison population is not just a phenomenon in the United States. Over the last twenty years, prison population rates have grown by over 20% in almost all countries in the European Union and by at least 40% in one half of them. The pattern appears remarkably similar in other regions, with a growth of 50% in Australia, 38% in New Zealand and about 6% worldwide.

In many countries – such as the United States and Canada – this fast-paced growth has occurred against a backdrop of stable or decreasing crime rates and is mostly due to mandatory and longer prison sentencing for non-violent offenders. But how much does prison actually cost? And who goes to jail?

The average annual cost per prison inmate in the United States was close to 30,000 dollars in 2008. Costs are even higher in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada. Punishment is an expensive business. These figures have prompted a shift of interest, among both academics and policymakers, from tougher sentencing to other forms of intervention. Prison populations overwhelmingly consist of individuals with poor education and even poorer job prospects. Over 70% of US inmates in 1997 did not have a high school degree. In an influential paper, Lochner and Moretti (2004) establish a sizable negative effect of education, in particular of high school graduation, on crime. There is also a growing body of evidence on the positive effect of education subsidies on school completion rates. In light of this evidence, and given the monetary and human costs of crime, it is crucial to quantify the relative benefits of policies promoting incarceration vis-à-vis alternatives such as boosting educational attainment, and in particular high school graduation.

When it comes to reducing crime, prevention may be more efficient than punishment. Resources devoted to running jails could profitably be employed in productive activities if the same crime reduction could be achieved through prevention.

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Establishing which policies are more efficient requires a framework that accounts for individuals’ responses to alternative policies and can compare their costs and benefits. In other words, one needs a model of education and crime choices that allows for realistic heterogeneity in individuals’ labor market opportunities and propensity to engage in property crime. Crucially, this analysis must be empirically relevant and account for several features of the data, in particular for the crime response to changes in enrollment rates and the enrollment response to graduation subsidies.

The findings from this type of exercise are fairly clear and robust. For the same crime reduction, subsidizing high school graduation entails large output and efficiency gains that are absent in the case of tougher sentences. By improving the education composition of the labor force, education subsidies increase the differential between labor market and illegal returns for the average worker and reduce crime rates. The increase in average productivity is also reflected in higher aggregate output. The responses in crime rate and output are large. A subsidy equivalent to about 9% of average labor earnings during each of the last two years of high school induces almost a 10% drop in the property crime rate and a significant increase in aggregate output. The associated welfare gain for the average worker is even larger, as education subsidies weaken the link between family background and lifetime outcomes. In fact, one can show that the welfare gains are twice as large as the output gains. This compares to negligible output and welfare gains in the case of increased punishment. These results survive a variety of robustness checks and alternative assumptions about individual differences in crime propensity and labor market opportunities.

To sum up, the main message is that, although interventions which improve lifetime outcomes may take time to deliver results, given enough time they appear to be a superior way to reduce crime. We hope this research will advance the debate on the relative benefits of alternative policies.

Giulio Fella is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary University, United Kingdom. Giovanni Gallipoli is an Associate Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics (University of British Columbia) in Canada. They are the co-authors of the paper ‘Education and Crime over the Life Cycle‘ in the Review of Economic Studies.

Review of Economic Studies aims to encourage research in theoretical and applied economics, especially by young economists. It is widely recognised as one of the core top-five economics journal, with a reputation for publishing path-breaking papers, and is essential reading for economists.

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Image credit: Prison, © rook76, via iStock Photo.

The post Education and crime over the life cycle appeared first on OUPblog.

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2. Drawing at the Baltimore Detention Center

On Friday, I took my students to the Baltimore City Detention Center to draw and interview some of the inmates in Cell Block E. I am most grateful to Dr. Kevin McCamant for working all semester to help make this a reality for us. Dr. McCamant is a psychologist who works with MICA’s community arts program to use art therapy with the inmates there. Most inmates on Block E are in for light crimes like, theft, vandalism, and trespassing. However, there are a few who are in for more serious crimes. To be clear, the detention center is NOT a prison. The men there are awaiting trial. In my understanding the men there cannot be held over three years. Most of the men I talked to had only been there between 2 months and a year. Longer sentences are carried out in prison.

Before entering the facility we all had to pass security inspection, which meant removing all jackets, sweaters, coats, jewelry, watches, and sometimes shoes (similar to what you would do to pass airport security). Afterwards we had to walk through a metal detector. One student and I did not pass the metal detector due to the metal in our underwire garments and had to wait for a supervisor to scan us with a wand before heading upstairs. Once we walked through a few corridors and many locking gates, we arrived in the dayroom where some of the inmates were having lunch – not unlike what you would see in any high school cafeteria.

The day went very well. The men were happy to see fresh faces from outside and have their likenesses drawn. The students and I enjoyed the stories that they shared about their families, talents, and passions. One of my students joined me in walking down to draw some of the cells. I chose cell 49 and after bringing the drawing back to share, the men teased Clarence, it’s inhabitant, because of the messy state of his dormitory. In contrast, my student drew cell 48, which was very neat and tiny. When he shared the drawing, the inmate it belonged to beamed with pride at his neatness.

The experience was valuable to all. I personally thought about institutionalization and how we are all conditioned at a very young age. There wasn’t much difference between the environments of public school and the detention center. Both are under very strict supervision and rules. We are told when to eat, when to use the restroom, when to go outside (a lot of men hadn’t seen the outdoors in months). I am much more sympathetic now to the “problem children” from my days in elementary, middle, and high school who acted out and struggled with performance in that very rigid climate. It is a highly sterile and unnatural environment. I think of myself, who was a model student. I stayed in line, didn’t question the authority in place and made it through the system sucessfully in order to become a “model citizen”; therefore reinforcing the system and the production of more and more model citizens . . . drones . . . slaves . . . etc.

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3. Wisdom from the Cartoon Prison

You gotta be careful in here, kid. You may be wearin’ your stripes, but you ain’t earned your stripes. Go it alone and you’ll make mistakes. You’ll hitch yourself to the wrong post, get saddled up and sold to the highest bidder. Stick by me and you might stand half a chance, but you’re gonna hafta listen.

What’s that?

Oh, that’d be on Tuesdays. Not a bad spread. Pickles. Onions. Standard. You’ll learn the menu. More important is this here yard. How you carry yourself. Who you trust. Take that fella at the bench press for example, the one with the dark beard and forearms thick as your chest. Name’s Bluto. Doin’ a dime for kidnappin’ a woman. That’s right, a sailor man’s wife. Threw her over his shoulder and took her down to the docks. Oh, he’ll rough you up right, but keep a can of spinach in your hip pocket and he’ll think twice. I don’t understand the science, but that there is the formula. Spinach.

Agreed, kid. Coupla sizzlin’ patties will beat a can o’ the green any yesterday or tomorrow, but that’s not what we’re talkin’. We’re talkin’ today and today is about the disco and the disco is about stayin’ alive. Have a look here. Skinny character sporting the lime suit? Question mark on his chest? That don’t mean he’s the information booth. No sir. Say a word to that crafty SOB and he’ll come at you like the Sphinx, all riddles ‘n giggles. Next thing you know you’ll be chummin’ around with a psycho circus clown and runnin’ from some pointy-eared, gravelly voiced vigilante. No. Thank. You. Best to steer clear of that riddler entirely.

Beats me! I wouldn’t know if his riddles are about ground beef or ground cinnamon for that matter, because I don’t talk to the man! Aren’t you listenin’? Better be. Your eyes ain’t gonna tell you what my twenty-seven years behind this barbed wire knows to be true. Another example. You probably look over at that strung-out orange beaky guy and think, “well that’s just some ol’ cuckoo junkie.” You’d be right about that. But that ol’ cuckoo junkie goes by the name of Sonny, and Sonny knows where to score the sweet stuff, if you catch my meaning. Sonny is just cuckoo for it, smuggles it past the guards in cereal boxes. You want a taste, that’s your bird.

I guess he could get you some, but why not wait till Tuesday? Like I said, they fire up that flame-broiler on Tuesdays. Sonny’s got no time to bother with no fast-food. Wisen up, boy, or you’ll end up runnin’ with them Hanna Barberas and let me tell you, that gang’s no Laff-a-Lympics. Sure, some of them hustlas may talk a soft game, soundin’ like Casey Casem or Paul Lynde, but they will be quick to shank a new fish if they even suspect you’re conspirin’ with the ascotted and far-sighted and snack-gobblin’ brand o’ meddlin’ teenagers. Dig? Of course you don’t. I’m not spellin’ it out in ketchup. These are the type of gangstas that dress as ghosts and swamp thangs and go hauntin’ just so they can shut down orphanages! That enough to scare you? Oh and don’t get me started on the Orphans! That’s another gang. A more Dickensian band of bandits you have not seen. If it ain’t your porridge they’re after, it’s your inheritance. You work the chimney sweep detail and you’ll be pits-deep in those mangy lads, singing show-tunes while they pick your pocket. You’re better off

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4. Youth voice is a powerful thing

Yesterday, I had a great opportunity to participate in a phone conversation with my friend Amira, an Egyptian-American living in NYC and a group of incarcerated teens at a local jail who have been watching the news unfold for over two weeks about the Middle Eastern country of Egypt.

Through the Global Kids organization in NYC, Amira has done digital projects virtually with teens at the jail near me, so she is not new collaborating with us in that sense. The guys had been following events in Egypt such as the recent PBS Frontline episode, Revolution in Cairo, BBC news coverage, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to look at how it was being leveraged to create the movement that many of us are familiar with seeing.

The teens came to the conversation with an amazing foundation fostered by the Librarian at the jail. Before being exposed to this media, some of the questions the guys had were on the order of, “where in the world is Egypt?” which changed to learning about how they as youth were capable of creating change in their own communities, neighborhoods, and situations, just like the youth they had seen and read about in the news.

As a follow-up to the phone conference, we plan to engage the young men with what local issues they are interested in tackling. I can share that in a blog post next week.

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5. Sense of Self With Technology

Last week I blogged about the teens I work with at a jail using Publisher. They used it again today and are making great progress on their flyers. Today, two actors from the theatre my library has a partnership with, had a follow up visit with the youthful offenders.

They engaged the teens in some improv exercises and opened up the floor for them to share their poetry and songs. They were recorded using a webcam and iMovie. The recording will stay ‘in house’ for confidentiality purposes but will give the guys a chance to view themselves on camera. The librarian reported that when they had done this in the past, the guys were very insightful about how they came off to people and remarked on their demeanor in a way that they hadn’t before.

It’s great that the jail is open to using technology in a way that they are comfortable with because it still maintains the safety, security, and confidentiality of the youth but at the same time allows the youth to interact and observe in ways that are part of something a bit bigger than the circle they were in at that moment. It can be a tool for transformation and another way they can help build a stronger sense and awareness of self.

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6. Zuda Submission Page - Colored




Here's a page from my zudacomics.com submission inked and colored.

I admit it...I'm not nuts about computer coloring. (Maybe it's because I'm not that good at it). Sometimes it just feels like a chore to me. (Once again, maybe that's because I'm not that good at it).

I'm about halfway through coloring the eight pages in my submission but I'm having trouble finding time getting it done with so much other work going on right now and with my wife on spring break and requiring a good deal of my attention. MY goal is to knuckle up and get it done this week.

Is that likely?

No.

It's nice to dream though.

Steve~

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7. Interview with Sara Zarr

Please join me in welcoming Sara Zarr to Big A little a! Recently I reviewed Sara's new YA novel, Sweethearts, and loved it. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, put it on top of your TBR list. You won't be disappointed.

Because I've interviewed Sara twice before--once here and once at The Edge of the Forest (on occasion of her first novel, Story of a Girl, being shortlisted for the National Book Award), this interview concerns Sweethearts almost exclusively.

Kelly: Jennifer Harris was the exiled child in elementary school—the chubby grade-schooler some children shunned and others tormented. By high school she acquires a step father, a new svelte figure, and a crowd of friends at an entirely new school. What I really appreciated about Sweethearts was how you showed how difficult this transformation was for Jennifer (now Jenna) not in a physical sense, but emotionally. Jenna still struggles with her inner Jennifer. Her transformation was not an easy fix. Did you have a model when constructing Jenna's story? Or, an anti-model?

Sara: Years ago I worked part-time for a friend who had a flower shop in San Francisco. I remember one day we were chatting and I remarked on how good he was at what he did, and how much I loved his store, and he said that he still had this feeling that he was going to be arrested for impersonating a florist. I feel that way about my writing career sometimes---that this is all a fluke and someone is going to come along and say, "Ha ha, just fooling, this isn't for you, go back to wherever it is you came from." All this is just to say that I think it's a very human thing, that many of us---especially if we come from backgrounds that felt uncertain or unsafe---are suspicious of good circumstances or positive feelings or others' offerings of friendship or love. I didn't think consciously about that while I wrote, but in retrospect maybe it's so ingrained that I didn't have to. Real transformation is never easy.

Kelly: In addition to having a complex heroine, Sweethearts features a complex set of friends. Sure, Jenna's part of the cool crowd now, but your cool crowd is not homogeneous. Even the self-centered boyfriend is basically a good kid who needs to grow up a little. Were you consciously working against clichés when writing Sweethearts?

Sara: For me the de-cliche-ification is usually something that happens in later drafts. Of course I try to avoid them in every draft, but they do tend to sneak in under the radar sometimes. I still wonder if I should have made Cameron's dad more complex and human, but I couldn't because the story is from Jenna's point of view and she only had that one experience with him so in the end he's the most completel villainous villain I've written.

Kelly: Speaking of working against clichés, can I just butt in here and mention that Alan is quite possibly the best stepfather character I've run across in any children's book. He's wonderfully real and kind.

Sara: Oh, thank you. I wanted to write a great stepfather because I had one. Step-parents aren't traditionally the most beloved characters in teen fiction, but there are lots of them out there who have basically rescued the families they married into by providing love and support and stability...a real home. Second marriages can be very redeeming. Also, since Deanna's dad in Story of a Girl was so tough on her, and Cameron's dad in Sweethearts is an abuser, it was important to me to give props to the many good fathers and father figures in the world and not be "that writer who hates men." I love men! Yay, men!

Kelly: Sweethearts is the tale of Jenna and her reunion with the one child who was kind to her in elementary school—Cameron Quick. When Jenna is nine, Cameron leaves without saying goodbye. In fact, Jenna hears at school that Cameron died. So, when Cameron shows up again when Jenna is in high school, her whole world turns upside down. What inspired you to imagine this dramatic scenario?

Sara: I had a little sweetheart in grade school who moved away in third grade. I never forgot him or his name or what he looked like, or how it felt to know someone liked me. We got back in touch in adulthood and I started to wonder what it would have been like if we'd been reunited in high school when drama and hormones and angst ran high. The story unfolded from there (over the course of a lot of drafts!).

Kelly: Cameron Quick's home was and is not a happy one. His father is abusive and, in fact, Cameron and Jenna share one encounter with Cameron's dad that stays with them forever. This event is psychological abuse at its most horrifying. But, while the event itself is terrible, ultimately Jenna and Cameron deal with the past and this event in healthy, mature ways. Did you do a lot of research into psychological abuse when writing Sweethearts?

Sara: Not really. I might have Googled a few things to make sure I wasn't portraying anything patently false, but honestly I think every child at some point or another has had an encounter with an adult that is traumatizing or at least frightening in some way. Even seeing your kindergarten teacher lose her temper can be truly frightening for a five-year-old! I just sort imagined that fear compounded day after day for Cameron, or in a single intense event for Jenna, and thought about the aftereffects. I had enough of those types experiences myself to know what it feels like, and how just a couple of those can put you on guard the rest of your life.

Kelly: Do you think Jenna will grow up to be an English teacher, as she tells Cameron she may when they discuss their futures?

Sara: Ha! Good question. I think that's the safe and predictable career choice she has mapped out for herself, but by the end of the book she is breaking away from safe and predictable and opening herself up a bit more. Maybe she'll take a little detour and try some other things before ending up in her classroom full of eager learners.

Kelly: Okay, Sara. You've done it. As you know, I loved Story of a Girl. But, I have to say that I liked Sweethearts even more. It's a fantastic novel, populated by complex characters with complex decisions to make. I'll admit it. I'm impressed. So, tell me: What do we have to look forward to next?

Sara: Thank you! Next up is another YA novel with Little, Brown. At this point, there's a pastor's daughter, a missing girl, and a small town. As for the rest of the details, I'm still in discovery.
-------------------------------
Sara's on (blog) tour this month. You can follow along at the following sites:

Largehearted Boy
(playlist for Sweethearts)
Oncewritten
Kate Messner's Book Blog
Shelf Elf
The Well-Read Child

And, you can always catch Sara at her own blog at sarazarr.com.

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8. Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Jennifer Harris used to be that poor, chubby kid who sat alone in the cafeteria. Well, almost alone. There was Cameron Quick, another social outcast. Another kid living in poverty and living on the fringe of third grade society. He was her only friend and the only person who ever understood Jennifer Harris. And then he disappeared.

Years pass. Jennifer gets a new stepfather, a new house, a new school, a new name, a new life. She reinvents herself as Jenna Vaughn. Jenna Vaughn is one of the pretty, thin popular girls. She has friends and a hot boyfriend. But she also has a secret – a dark memory that ties her forever to Cameron Quick and to the old Jennifer Harris, who never really left. SWEETHEARTS is the story of Cameron’s return to Jennifer’s life and what happens when her two worlds meet.

As a National Book Award Finalist, Sara Zarr has a lot riding on this next novel, scheduled for release in February 2008. There will be inevitable comparisons to STORY OF A GIRL. Can this second book live up to that standard? Truth be told, I liked SWEETHEARTS even better. The characters in this novel absolutely shine, from the insecure third grade Jennifer and the third grade Cameron whose generosity and fierce loyalty made me want him for a friend, to the high school version of these kids, still haunted by their grade school selves. The minor characters shine, too. One of my favorites was Jenna’s stepfather, whose quiet support helps Jenna and her mother rebuild what was broken so many years ago.

Some character-driven novels sacrifice pace and tension, but that’s not the case with SWEETHEARTS. From the very first chapter, readers sense there’s a story from Jennifer’s childhood that’s not being told in its entirety. Zarr reveals that story in bits and pieces, snippets of memory and elegantly woven flashbacks throughout the book. All the while, the parts of the story left unspoken create powerful tension.

I read SWEETHEARTS in just a few sittings. When I was away from the book, I spent half my time thinking about the characters and hoping things would go well for them. They grow on you like that. Sara Zarr has written another fantastic novel –- one that celebrates the power of childhood friendships, loyalty, and inner strength. Like STORY OF A GIRL, Zarr's new release is loaded with realistic characters, hope, and heart. The fabulous cookie cover art delivers on its promise – SWEETHEARTS an absolutely delicious read. 

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9. I'm Mad at a Couple of Writers

I can't believe they'd even do this to me. Anyone, EVERYONE, who knows me knows how much trouble I have with sleep. I am a classic insomniac--the sleep doctor said so. Why would anyone do anything to destroy what little sleep I get?

The perpetrators: Fiona Neill and Sara Zarr. Ms. Neill has written an intelligent mommy-lit novel--think Desperate Housewives (without the murders) meets Sex in the City. The writing is quick and witty. Lucy, the main character, doesn't bore me with how cute her kids are or rant about her husband or any of those other things that real people bore me with. I could be friends with Lucy. That's why I can't put Slummy Mummy down. It's smart fun.

Sara Zarr made me stay up past 2 a.m. on a school night with Story of a Girl. Sara, how could you do this to me? It was almost midnight; I was going to read only one chapter, but no, your writing was too real and too tight for me to put down. It wasn't even like I was reading a book; the reading was effortless. I don't remember turning the pages. I just remember looking at the clock after closing the back cover.

Excellent stories. Amazing writers! (Fiona, Sara, you owe me some ZZZs.)

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10. Review: Story of a Girl


Imagine you made a mistake as a teenager. A big mistake. Now imagine you made this mistake in a small town when you were thirteen years old.

Sara Zarr's moving Story of a Girl tells just this tale from the point of view of sixteen-year-old Deanna Lambert. At age 13, Deanna was caught "in the act" with her older brother's best friend. By her father. Oh, and Deanna and the boy were in a parked car.

Small towns being what they are, it takes only a day for Deanna's story to spread throughout Pacifica. From that moment on Deanna is the "school sl*t" (despite the fact she's avoided boys since the incident) and at home life isn't much better. Dad--nearly three years later--has yet to recover from finding his daughter in a car with a seventeen-year-old boy and he barely talks to Deanna.

Story of a Girl opens on the final day of Deanna's sophomore year. She's feeling stuck--in her small town, in her reputation, and in her family. Zarr does a great job in showing the depression--economic and emotional--of a place down on its luck. Deanna's only job option is a rundown pizza joint. Her parents professional lives have been downsized--Mom working in a Mervyns and Dad in an auto parts supply store. Deanna's much-loved older brother lives in the basement with his new wife and baby. Deanna's brother and his wife work in the grocery store. With everyone working retail hours, no one is home at the same time and the house is sliding into disrepair.

Deanna dreams of escape--of saving her money and moving out with her brother and his family. But escape is hard to come by when you are sixteen and live in a small town. Instead, Deanna must come to terms with what happened and forgive herself and others. Over the course of just this one summer, Deanna, with a few mistakes along the way, finds peace with herself, her reputation, her town, and her family. It's a beautiful gem of a book, one that will stay with me forever.

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Let me just add that I think the title and the cover art are so perfectly simple and evocative, they're small miracles. Deanna could be any girl, which is exactly the point.

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