Cultural IQ

A Nursing Program In A Class by Itself

This Faculty Designs Classrooms

Where Students Learn to Overcome Challenges

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Christine Callahan's mother passed away unexpectedly when she was a second-year nursing student at Community College of Philadelphia. Elaine Tagliareni, a nurse educator, kept her moving in the direction of her goals.

“I was considering dropping out of the program, but Tagliareni’s constant support and encouragement pulled me through,” said Callahan, who today works as an RN.

The faculty commitment to student success is among the reasons the Community College of Philadelphia Nursing program recently earned redesignation as a national Center of Excellence. In this department, faculty share a collective belief that they must work with students to foster excellence and produce a brigade of nurses who create healthy communities by taking on community ills.

The Center for Excellence mark of distinction was bestowed on the program by the National League of Nursing (NLN), which represents more than 15,000 nursing faculty members. Tagliareni, an advocate for quality patient care and culturally competent nurses, is the new NLN president. She is the first community college educator ever elected to serve at the helm of the organization that develops standards of excellence for nursing schools throughout the nation.

Philadelphia is recognized as an incubator for intellectual talent, with so many of its regional institutions of higher learning known throughout the world. The Nursing faculty at Community College of Philadelphia easily hold their own in such distinguished company.

These educators come to class with purpose and passion, Tagliareni explains. The faculty put the students first. They support them by providing faculty mentors and creating the services and support networks that students will need to overcome setbacks and remain in school.

Moreover, the students' unique backgrounds and experiences are seen as a resource, not a liability. They draw upon this intelligence to create programs and classwork that will equip them to work well with all types of people.

The first time I ever heard someone utter the term cultural competence, I was at Community College of Philadelphia interviewing Andrea Mengel,the head of the Department of Nursing, and Tagliareni. The faculty had launched a service-learning project in the 19130 Zip Code to enable students to learn from the very people who one day would become their patients. It was a novel idea that helped faculty to identify the new skill sets graduates might need, and stimulate curiousity regarding client differences and challenges.

Long before cultural competencies became a mandate for the healthcare industry', these nursing graduates were being prepared to work in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes serving diverse client populations. The biggest kid on the healtcare block, you see, is not necessarily the one that reaches the finish line first.

On Wednesday, the faculty that has been honored for its academic innovations and its excellence, had its day to shine in our city. Independence Blue Cross hosted a luncheon to celebrate the Center for Excellence designation, and to honor Tagliareni who is now in a position to influence nurse education throughout America.

At the luncheon, Tagliareni made it clear that her colleagues; her department head, Mengel; her mentors; the College administration; the students and her family each have played a role in her success.

"The nursing faculty is truly my heart," she told the audience. This teacher who calls her job and her students  "gifts" is ready for the responsibilty handed to her.  "What a wonderful gift to be an educator and to provide opportunity," she says.

 

Sometimes, people expect less from the underdog. They don't believe they are capable of much so they forgive their faults, and excuse their weaknesses. This strategy produces mediocre workers and graduates who lack the necessary tools for future success.

Community College of Philadelphia's Nursing faculty reminds us that high expectations are the the only real pathway to possibilities. It is OK to expect alot from students, as long as we are also committed to helping them to reach their goals.

Since 1968, Community College of Philadelphia's nursing program has graduated more than 3,100 RNs. The average salary reported by the College’s 2006 nursing graduates was $57,543. What's more, a college survey found that all the 2006 nursing graduates were employed.

Philadelphia does, indeed, have acres of diamonds. Instead of looking elsewhere for the big idea, we just need to talk to one another and ask: "What is it I can learn from you?"

 

The right answers often are closer to home than we might think.

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Editor’s note: Anthony Twyman, public relations coordinator for Community College of Philadelphia, contributed materials to this report. In addition, I must disclose that I serve on the Community College of Philadelphia Foundation Board, which raises money for student scholarships and to support academic enrichment.

Leaving Friends is Never Easy but Finding the Place You Belong -- Priceless!

                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Now that I’m packed and ready to move from my condo, there are so many folks to tell about my January arrival in Houston, TX. In Philadelphia, even complete strangers need to know what’s going on in your life.  I moved away once before, and upon a return visit an agitated stranger walked over and asked: “Where have you been?” I confessed to moving away.

                              

“Oh, I wondered what happened to you!” he said. “I used to see you walking around all the time.” His inquiry over, he abruptly left and faded into the crowd.

Philadelphia is a quirky place where strangers freely advise fellow pedestrians, whether they wish it or not. This rough-edged, in-your-face personality sets the town apart from other places. (Take off your hair, a stranger once commanded me. He had wrongly assumed that I had been wearing a wig. Another guy approached to say he didn't like my lipstick color.)

Many Philadelphians greet news of my departure with a befuddled stare. It’s as if I had just told them that I’d decided to abandon the New England Patriots to become a Miami Dolphins fan. “What’s Houston got anyway?” they typically ask. That’s often followed by an urgent question: “You aren’t going to root for the Dallas Cowboys, are you?” (I’m not.)

So, why is Houston the right place for me at this special time of my life? It offers a colorful civic quilt broad enough to comfort the weary Katrina evacuees who showed up looking for shelter, jobs, housing and food. That’s a tall order for a city. But Houstonians managed to pull through it together, winning my admiration and respect.

Houston (as I have learned from feedback to my 2004-07 columns in The Houston Chronicle) has a group of interesting and articulate conservatives who have been willing to sit down and explain their views to me without making me feel foolish. Every time I get to thinking that I know it all, I hear their contrary thoughts swirling around in my head. They serve as trainers who keep me fit by helping me to exercise my views and beliefs. Those rigorous workouts are stimulating.

Then there are the folks I’ve met in Houston who bring strangers into their homes to discuss community problems and find ways to heal from racism. With them, I find this sense of being connected to something greater than myself. They are so much like family that I feel at home when they are near.

And finally, there is the congeniality of Houstonians. I was walking out of the airport

when a Houston police officer approached. “Welcome Home,” he said, greeting me with a huge smile on his face.  I was startled. My surprised expression handed the officer a big clue that I must have been an out-of-towner. So he extended his hand. “Well, welcome to Houston. We are so glad to have you here.”

Cities that attract imagination-powered businesses and highly educated workers are creating global marketplaces where ideas are a valued form of currency. Quite a few corporations in Houston capitalize on their workers' cultural intelligence - which makes them trendsetters. The locals are far more accepting of gays and lesbians, which shows an appreciation for differences. If you’ve read Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, you know tolerance, talent and technology are driving knowledge-intensive industries, where human minds – not machines – stimulate economic growth.  When Florida assembled creativity indices for 49 major cities, Austin (2) Houston (7) and Dallas (10) all placed in the top 10.

“The most successful regions welcome all kinds of people,” writes Florida for Americancity.org  “They offer a range of living choices, from nice suburbs with single-family housing to hip urban districts for the “unattached.” Why do they offer all of the above? Simple: because they have to. Like it or not, only 23.5 percent of Americans now live in a standard nuclear family with two parents and children at home. Appealing only to traditional families and bashing everyone else may make good propaganda for the culture wars, but as a development strategy, it’s a pretty narrow approach: any region or politician that does so stand to alienate a lot of talented people.”

In April, Black Enterprise (BE)  magazine ranked Houston as the fourth best city for African Americans to live, play, and work in. (Chicago and Philadelphia, which appeared on BE's 2001 Best Places list, failed to make it in 2007. Residents are disenchanted with social problems, including the high cost of living, rising crime rates, and substandard public schools, BE reported.)

I’ll miss the friends and colleagues I must now leave behind, of course. During the last 12 years I have reinvented myself - working as a journalist; then as a public relations consultant; then as coordinator of Sheriff John Green’s visionary task for the prevention of mortgage foreclosure; and finally, as a cultural competency facilitator, writer and trainer. My heart will ache whenever I think of the faculty, staff and students at Community College of Philadelphia, which has been my neighbor, and my passion. Tears are certain to fall as I leave behind the imaginative staff at the National Liberty Museum, which inspires citizens to act as if we are the rock stars of our democracy.

The sun is rising over Philadelphia now that Mayor-elect Michael Nutter is on the scene, asking residents to be more civic-minded and courteous. Bold cultural shifts often appear scary or silly at first. Nutter has demonstrated that he's an underdog who can leap tall challenges and cast a warm reassuring glow over a city gripped by sorrow and fear. Listen to him, dear neighbors. His is the voice of the New Philadelphia. A more civil and tolerant attitude is needed to transform this city into a business incubator that attracts the brainy, highly skilled workers who prefer jeans, t-shirts, dreadlocks, and pony tails (and order cheesesteaks in broken English.) Yo, street advisers, let's forgo the comments on their appearance and clothes!

Nutter views Philadelphia as a creative city with a global future, instead of as a tourist town with an historic past. The smart money says he will triumph. As a councilman, he demonstrated strong support for Community College of Philadelphia, which offers a variety of career paths and pipelines to carry the local brainpower onto four-year universities. It is the solution for what ails our town. When college is accessible and affordable, the unemployed and disengaged become corporate assets, not police liabilities.

Adios, to my amigos in Philly. Please come soon and often for a visit.

And to my new neighbors in Houston, "Yo, people! I'm on the way. Thanks for having me!"

Wouldn't it be cool if I were to see that police officer when I arrive at the airport so I could walk over and say, "Hello, neighbor. I'm home."

Weekly News Briefs

A collection of news stories that raise our Cultural IQ. Discuss them with a friend or use them as conversation starters to boost your cultural literacy and cultural awareness.

Trying to Break Cycle of Prison at Street Level

New York Times

By SOLOMON MOORE

Published: November 23, 2007

Last year, 32,585 prisoners were released on state parole in Texas, and many of them returned to neighborhoods where they live among thousands of other parolees and probationers.Sunnyside is one of 10 neighborhoods in Houston that together accounted for 15 percent of the city’s population, yet received half of the 6,283 prisoners released in Houston in 2005, according to the Justice Mapping Center, a criminal justice research group. The group, which is based in Brooklyn, has done work for the Texas Legislature that helped lead to a $217 million expansion of rehabilitation services.

Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause

By Ellen Nakashima

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 23, 2007

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers. In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

Language Gap Hinders Doctor-Patient Relationships

By Francisco Vara-Orta, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 23, 2007

The state Legislature decided four years ago that the estimated 1.1 million patients in California who pay for private health insurance but speak little or no English should receive services such as language interpreters and translated materials from their insurance providers. Lawmakers set a deadline of mid-2008 for providers to submit a compliance plan to state regulators, with fines for noncompliance scheduled to begin in 2009.The move, expected to cost tens of millions of dollars in private money, has generated little opposition. Proponents of English as the official language of the United States vary in their views of the new regulations.

Community Colleges Struggling to Keep Study-Abroad Programs Alive

By KATHY A. GOOLSBY /The Dallas Morning News

A handful of Dallas-area community colleges  are reconsidering or cutting back study-abroad programs as travel costs rise and the dollar continues its decline.

Can African Americans Still Be Thought Of As A Single Race?

The Pew Research Center reports that a new survey of African Americans found  "a widening gulf between the values of middle class and poor blacks, and nearly four-in-ten say that because of the diversity within their community, blacks can no longer be thought of as a single race. Blacks are also less upbeat about the state of black progress now than at any time since 1983. Looking backward, just one-in-five blacks say things are better for blacks now than they were five years ago. Looking ahead, fewer than half of all blacks (44%) say they think life for blacks will get better in the future, down from the 57% who said so in a 1986 survey." To view more from this survey click here.

The Value of A Good Disagreement

Deborah Gruenfeld of Stanford's Graduate School of Business has examined the value of a really good disagreement. The effects of disagreements are not all negative, her research indicates.  In fact, it suggests that teams encompassing at least two separate points of view on a particular question are pressured to improve their analyses.

The pressure of the minority forces the majority to think more complexly and consider diverse evidence, Gruenfeld says. Her conclusions are based, in part, on an analyis of decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court. When two groups are close in size they tend to be more open-minded than when one group holds a larger balance of power, the associate professor of organizational behavior found.

She believes that one can apply lessons learned from research based on behaviors of the Supreme Court to other fields. In fact, she found similar results in studies of student behavior. Still one caution: because of the court’s conservative nature, it as a built-in bias toward upholding the status quo.

According to Stanford University, “Gruenfeld believes her work contradicts a notion popular in some political circles (and supported by research done by Philip Tetlock of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, among others) that those who support parties and politics on the right are more rigid in their thinking and more intolerant of ambiguity than those on the left.”

The Stanford Graduate School of Business is a great source for research related to racial and gender diversity in the workplace.

Weekly News Briefing

Freephoto.com

A collection of news stories that raise our Cultural IQ. Discuss them with a friend or use them as conversation starters to boost your cultural literacy and cultural awareness.

Philadelphia Daily News: Doing your civic duty is a natural “hi”

By Jill Porter

JUST SAY HELLO to each other. That's all Michael Nutter asks. The mayor-elect thinks that that simple greeting can help reknit this city's frayed fabric. Yes, he does. He said so during a radio interview last week, and he expounded on it yesterday when I asked.

"With the crime and violence that's going on in Philadelphia, it's an absolute indication of a breakdown in normal human engagement," he told me. "We don't speak to each other. We go into our houses. We don't want to report anything that's happening bad."We've become so self-centered that we don't even recognize each other out on the streets of the city any more with a simple hello."

New York Times: Immigration Dilemma: Mother Torn From Baby

By Julia Preston

The decision to separate a mother from her breast-feeding child drew strong denunciations from Hispanic and women’s health groups. Last week, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency rushed to issue new guidelines on the detention of nursing mothers, allowing them to be released unless they pose a national security risk.

New York Times: In Name Count, Garcias Catching Up With Joneses

By Sam Roberts

Smith remains the most common surname in the United States, according to a new analysis released yesterday by the Census Bureau. But for the first time, two Hispanic surnames — Garcia and Rodriguez — are among the top 10 most common in the nation, and Martinez nearly edged out Wilson for 10th place.

Los Angeles Times: N.H. probes anti-Romney opinion poll

By Michael Finnegan,

WASHINGTON — New Hampshire's attorney general launched an investigation Friday of a polling operation that allegedly spread negative information about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith.Romney and GOP rival John McCain each called for the criminal investigation after the Associated Press ran an article about a survey of New Hampshire voters that was conducted this week. According to some of those called, survey takers asked whether aspects of Romney's religious beliefs would bother voters, including the church's pre-1970s ban on African Americans serving as bishops. Respondents were also asked about Romney's lack of military service during the Vietnam War.

MIAMI HERALD:Gratitude Attitude

By Teresa Mears

The world's major religions have long extolled the virtues of gratitude. It will be the theme of an interfaith Thanksgiving service Wednesday night at Coral Gables Congregational Church. Master Tsai, a Buddhist, will give the message.Now science has joined in, discovering that people who count their blessings are happier, healthier and more likely to achieve their personal goals.

Chicago Defender:Activist challenges Schools to do more for Black males

By Leila Noelliste

Chicago public schools do not know how to teach Black kids - that is the premise that Phillip Jackson, founder of the Black Star Project, has used to establish and defend his alternative educational model. With 100 concerned parents in tow, Jackson marched on City Hall in hopes of speaking with Mayor Daley. The mayor's Assistant Press Secretary was sent out instead. Jackson said that his plan was fueled by recent statistics on Black student performance. The Illinois State Board of Education reported the achievement gap between white and Black students grew from 32.2 percent in 2003, to 36.7 in 2007. The number of Blacks who passed the state reading test also dropped two percentage points, from 29 to 27 in the past five years.

New Mission for America: Help Returning Troops Feel Safe At Home

                                                                           It is tragic when a soldier puts his life on the line for his nation only to be looked down upon by the very people he tried to protect.Sadly, it happens every day.

Recently, a friend shared with me a distressing e-mail from an African American veteran in Houston who survived a war but is having difficulty getting past some of the emotional barricades at college.

Whenever he walks through campus, he feels eyes watching him as though he is the enemy. It’s a feeling he is familiar with in a war zone. But this is America, and the eyes trained on him are those of American security officers who are watching him because he is black.

Here is a portion of his story, told in his own words:

“I wanted to add a quart of oil . . . As I lifted the hood of my vehicle and started pouring the oil, the officer comes from out of nowhere and automatically had me under suspicion that I must be up to something bad or doing something wrong. He asked me in a suspicious way what was I doing. I told him "just putting oil in my car." . . . .I try to carry myself in a respectable way. I try to be a decent person and have good mannerisms, but it just seems like that doesn't even matter with some people. I know I'm not a great looking black guy. I don't have light skin or curly hair, but I do try to carry myself in a decent manner and with respect to others, and treat people as I would like to be treated.

“This has really upset me. What did I do wrong? Please tell me how I should handle this. Because as a veteran after serving this country, (before, I would say my country) now I feel that I need to find a country where racism isn't the issue. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm ready to make a sacrifice in my life and get rid of all of my belongings and drop out of school and find another country where I can go just be the person that GOD made me and start a new life . . . . I frequently, ask myself why did I fight for a country that will never, never accept me, just a simple person.”

Recently our local newspaper did a story on racial profiling in which a young black man stated that profiling is was just a fact of life. If it is, we should be alarmed by that fact. When you peel away the layers, racial profiling leaves behind emotional scars and simmering distrust. As the Boston Globe recently reported, the military has seen a big drop in black enlistees. You see, when we don’t step in to protect the rights of other people, they are less inclined to put their lives on the line for us.

The Boston Globe story reported that Defense Department statistics show the number of young black enlistees has fallen by more than 58 percent since fiscal year 2000. The Army in particular has been hit hard: In fiscal year 2000, according to the Pentagon statistics, more than 42,000 black men and women applied to enlist; in fiscal year 2005, the most recent for which a racial breakdown is available, just over 17,000 signed up.

This reflects African-American skepticism about the Iraq war, but also the growing feeling of ambivalence among young men and women who are heroes on the battlefields but crime suspects when they come home.

We can’t continue to sit silently on the sidelines and watch as these brave men and women receive unjust penalties – and then gripe, afterwards, because they never seem to score one for the team.

This week, as part of the weekly Cultural Coach column, I am asking you to do something to show this young man the compassionate and just side of America. Let’s show him he is a part of our community, and we applaud his efforts to better his life. Write him a note and post it below – telling him you care and appreciate his year’s of service. Or write your elected officials or police the next time young black men (possibly the next generation of heroes) are harassed or unfairly targeted for searches.

Ask for homeland security policies that promote safety without sacrificing the civil rights of any cultural group.

This young man has been there for us. Which of you is willing to stand beside him now?

Post your comments below or send private letters offering encouragement and support to theculturalcoach@aol.com  

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Responding to Life's Little Insults

Every so often, someone asks a question that that makes us wish we were back in kindergarten where tantrums and insults got you quiet time alone in a corner.

Our challenge is to answer these inquiries with words that soften the fabric of society rather than rip open its divides. On Tuesday  Sen. John McCain took his turn at the diversity wheel-of-fortune. Unfortunately, he did not walk away with a bonus prize.

“How do we beat the bitch?” a woman asked him during a campaign appearance, in an apparent reference to Hillary Clinton.

Sen. McCain responded to the question, but not to the insult. “There was a poll yesterday,” he said, “that shows me three points ahead of Senator Clinton in a head-to-head matchup. I respect Mrs. Clinton.”

Sure, it is easy for us to think of something clever to say now. But let’s play anyway. What might McCain have said to walk away with the grand prize.

I have two offerings:

“I don’t know any bitches – only women I truly respect. What I can tell you is that there was a poll yesterday that shows me three points ahead of Senator Clinton in a head-to-head matchup."

Or perhaps this:

“As I travel across this nation, I find so many Americans want a leader who can unify our country. I am that leader. That is why I am in this race. My commitment to civil conversations has made me a strong competitor and an effective legislator. Can a nice guy finish first in America? Well, there was a poll yesterday that shows me three points ahead of Senator Clinton in a head-to-head matchup."

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Share your thoughts and suggestions below..

U.S. Military Says It Needs Culturally Competent Troops

It's An "Imperative," A New Report Concludes

Today's message regarding the need for culturally competent American workers is brought to us by the U.S. Department of Defense.

"Superior technology and equipment alone does not ensure successful missions," a 2006 report concluded. "Rather, it is the American Service members' human dimension and understanding of others which provides the foundation for mission success. A key aspect of the Service members' human dimension is the understanding of people in terms of customs and culture. Preparing a Service member to deal effectively with others who are from a different culture is a critical task for the Department of Defense. The challenge is to develop culturally competent Service members who are capable of winning the hearts and minds of others in future operations."

It's now official. With the release of the aforementioned report by the Army's Lt. Col.Brett G. Lewis on developing culturally competent soldiers, the U.S military is transforming itself into an international educator. It is interesting to note that lessons are not confined to soldiers in diversity workshops. The  military has recommended integrating cultural insights throughout its programs, including classes on wartime strategy.

Cultural competence is "the fusion of cultural understanding with cultural intelligence that allows focused insight into current operations," suggests one recent report described on the Web site Storming Media. According to the abstract, the report's author suggests “it may be possible to weaponize culture, specifically through the use of cultural intelligence. To do this, commanders and staffs must be able to deconstruct each actor's culture to determine key relationships, dependencies, and vulnerabilities. These actors include allies, neutrals, adversaries, and local populations. The (report) may help to convince operational leaders that a systems approach to culture is the best method of achieving cultural competence. After establishing why culture has become the new key terrain in Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (JIPB), the author suggests modifications to the JIPB process and ways to incorporate cultural competence into campaign design using a systems approach."

Up until now, the movement to train culturally competent workers has been primarily centered in the healthcare industry, which has been attempting to eradicate racial disparities in patient outcomes and treatments.

Why is the Army jumping on the cultural competency Humvee now? Well, its officials say the need for cultural competency has increased as the United States has moved away from its isolationism tendencies over the past 120 years and engaged in other countries affairs around the world. "The character and duration of the conflicts the United States has been engaged in over the years, coupled with evolving American attitudes and views on diversity towards other peoples have all helped to influence the U.S. Army to identify a need to train soldiers to be more culturally aware,” the report on culturally competent soldiers concluded.

Check out this Web site  and you will find a library of cultural materials including a report from the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command that offers interesting facts about the Arab culture. It is one of the best booklets I have read on the subject. It deals in facts, and yet offers valuable insights that will help our soldiers work smarter and come home faster.

With the military focused so intently on cultural competency training, one wonders why these 21st-century skills - which provide competitive advantages whether we are in business or on the frontlines - are not mandatory coursework at universities or high schools.

Now, for the discussion questions for this day:

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If the military feels cultural competencies is an imperative, why aren’t more major police forces around the country teaching recruits these techniques? Cultural divisions still create deep reservoirs of distrust between police and communities. So, could the military’s tactical strategy also be used to keep the streets of America safer?

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Secondly, should the American public support its military by learning the cultural skills that enable them to serve as goodwill ambassadors as they travel, and promote greater knowledge of foreign policy issues?

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Whenever I conduct cultural filters workshops for elementary and secondary schools, teachers often complain that they can’t find materials that are up-to-date and affordable. The U.S. military’s growing on-line cultural libraries offer an educational road map. They are leading, and we should all follow behind and support the mission.

For More Info:

• Command And General Staff College
• Cultural Awareness Reading list
• Facts About Arab Culture" A training guide for U.S. soldiers

What Color Is Your Gang?

The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) has released a report that challenges some of our perceptions of youth gangs and  law enforcement tactics.

While the face of the gang problem in the popular media is black and Latino, whites make up the largest group of adolescent gang members, according to the JPI.  Law enforcement sources report that over 90 percent of gang members are nonwhite; however, youth survey data show that whites account for 40 percent of gang members between the ages of 12 and 16. This disparity, argue the report’s authors, raises troubling questions about how gang members are identified by law enforcement.

JPI, it should be noted, is an organization that seeks to promote effective solutions to social problems and to end society’s reliance on incarceration. Its analysis indicates that “youth crime in the United States remains near the lowest levels seen in the past three decades, yet public concern and media coverage of gang activity has skyrocketed since 2000.”

Moreover, authors Judith Green and Kevin Pranis suggest that the millions of dollars spent on gang suppression might be better spent on programs that provide jobs for youth and promote public safety.

"The current preoccupation with gangs is a distraction from very real problems of crime and violence that afflict too many communities,” says Pranis.  “Gangs do not drive crime rates, and aggressive suppression tactics simply make the situation worse by alienating local residents and trapping youth in the criminal justice system.  Our review of the research found no evidence that gang enforcement strategies have achieved meaningful reductions in violence, but ample proof that science-based social service interventions can curb delinquency.”

JPI also raises concerns that law enforcement gang suppression tactics serve to criminalize large groups of youth, and make it more difficult for members to leave because law enforcement groups or school authorities may continue to associate them with those activities.

Read the full July 2007 report, “Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies."

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