New Research on Violence

The new issue of Criminology features several interesting papers relating to violence and its control. This has been a hot topic here in Milwaukee over the past few months. Perhaps some of the emerging policy proposals would benefit from the new research.

First, an unusual controlled experiment in St. Louis provides support for “hot spots” policing, especially when officers proactively engage with citizens in the high-crime neighborhoods. Researchers working with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department randomly assigned hot spots of elevated firearm violence to one of three conditions: (1) a control group; (2) an enhanced visibility group in which officers were directed to patrol slowly through the targeted areas, but to refrain from self-initiated activity unless a crime was in progress; and (3) an enhanced activity group in which officers were directed both to increase patrols and to increase self-initiated activities, which might include arrests, pedestrian stops, vehicle checks, and so forth.  

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This Hallowed Ground

Gettysburg1863-Forever-single-BGv1Part of the Army War College curriculum at Carlisle Barracks involves the study of past battles. While a student at the War College this last June, I spent several hours at nearby Gettysburg Battlefield as part of the College’s National Security Seminar. Consideration was given to issues of command and control as well as tactics. There was much to be learned from this pivotal battle.

We began the tour on the ground defended by the Iron Brigade (also known as the Black Hat Brigade). The Iron Brigade, with many soldiers from Wisconsin, suffered the highest percentage of casualties of any brigade in the Civil War. The Iron Brigade played an important role in slowing down the Confederate advance until more Union troops arrived in Gettysburg.

Having read about the Battle of Little Round Top—one of several key fights in the battle, walking around the scenic (and now peaceful except for the sound of tour buses) hill (and its neighbor, Big Round Top) one could only wonder at the ferocious fighting that took place there.  

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Spouses, Income, Alimony

alimonyThere are few things in family law more controversial than alimony (also referred to as spousal maintenance), which is defined as a series of support payments made by one former spouse to another. Traditionally, alimony may be awarded when one spouse has need of financial support to maintain the marital standard of living, the other spouse has the ability to pay it, and the award meets certain criteria of fairness (e.g. it should not plunge the paying spouse into poverty or excuse the payee spouse from engaging in paid employment). Historically, alimony was paid by ex-husbands to their ex-wives, but today’s laws make it plain that either a man or a woman may be the payor. Spouses who have stayed home or reduced paid employment to raise children may claim that their activities at home made success at work more possible for the other spouse to succeed in the workplace, and that this should result in a greater share of the property division or an alimony award to either compensate the stay-at-home spouse for the sacrificed opportunities (restitution) or enable him or her to re-tool for a job with good pay (rehabilitation). Indeed, statutes like Wisconsin’s §767.56 direct judges to consider all of these factors (and others) in determining whether to award alimony to a divorcing spouse.

Nonetheless, alimony has never been common and has become less so: the few empirical studies that have been done show that only a small minority of divorcing spouses are awarded alimony of any amount and for any duration. The reasons for the always-low and still-declining numbers of alimony recipients are many and varied, and a full discussion of all of the theories requires more than a blog post.

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