A shot in the dark - murder under U.S. presidents

Detroit viewed from across the river in Windsor, Canada.
Detroit (popn. 649,000), 252 murders last year, murder rate 23 per 100,000. 
Windsor (popn. 229,000), 10 murders last year, murder rate 2.8 per 100,000.
Do national policies cut crime?

by Gregory Saville

Last week’s 2024 U.S. election ended with Donald Trump defeating Kamala Harris. It wasn’t a landslide, but it was not a cliffhanger. Some think crime will now drop, others think it will explode.

I am amazed at how frequently crime becomes a political weapon – a well-placed gotcha for a media soundbite in the middle of a campaign. Politicians love to promise solutions to crime waves but rarely offer practical answers based on research. It’s easy to claim that one president or another will reduce crime, but can a president actually achieve this? How does a president’s term in office truly affect national crime rates?

The data show that crime is declining. There are some upward blips here and there – violent crimes against young people are up, and mass shootings and school shootings have increased. However, on the whole, most crime rates are declining.

 

Detroit police use technology, surveillance cameras,
and other programs to attempt to prevent homicides 

HOW DO WE KNOW?

I examined U.S. homicide data to see if there was a pattern with different presidents. I’m not ignoring recent increases in a few city centers. I’m simply saying that most city centers have declining homicides this year. Denver is one of them.  

I know a few things about weaknesses in crime data. Yet,  even with the limitations, we can learn something. 

I collected homicide data from 1960-2022, and graphed the results and the tenures of 11 presidents. This method obviously bypasses all the other important factors affecting homicide and it only examines a President’s term and homicide rates. Even still, it shows something worth considering.

 

KENNEDY/JOHNSON

Homicide rates exploded during President Lyndon Johnson’s administration (and continued through President Nixon's term). He (and Kennedy) launched much-heralded social programs, many of which emerged from criminologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin’s book Delinquency and Opportunity. 

Many of the crime prevention strategies from the Kennedy/Johnson War on Poverty were successful and survive today such as Head Start, Job Corps, and AmeriCorps.

  

President Kennedy greeting Peace Corps volunteers in 1961 - one of the social programs from his administration - photo Abbie Rowe, CC via Wikimedia Commons

Those programs were founded on the belief that improving access to legitimate opportunities for disadvantaged youth could reduce crime. Crime, particularly homicide, was supposed to decline! It didn’t!

REAGAN

Consider this – a large portion of crime, like homicide, occurs via young male offenders between 18-25 years. The youngest in that demographic born in the War on Poverty decade reached their crime-prone years in the early 1980s. Perhaps they benefited from the War on Poverty programs? The graph above shows that the early 1980s was a period of dramatic homicide declines. By then Ronald Reagan was president! 

Could it be that Ronald Reagan benefitted from Kennedy and Johnson’s War on Poverty? 

President Reagan's inauguration speech, 1981
- photo White House Photographic Collection, CC Wikimedia Commons

Probably not. By the end of Regan’s presidency, the homicide rate began increasing again. Rates climbed through the presidency of George Bush with a small decline in his last year. So much for presidential influence over crime!

CLINTON 

The most dramatic impact on homicide was from 1993 to 2001. Clinton’s tenure saw the largest homicide decline in recorded American history. It was a decline across all crime categories and it continued through George W. Bush’s tenure and into the first term of Obama. 

Did that crime decline stem from Clinton’s all-encompassing and targeted anti-crime campaign called the 1994 Crime Bill? 

It was among the largest anti-crime bill since the 1968 Safe Streets Act of Johnson’s administration. Clinton’s 1994 bill created stricter criminal sentences and violence against women laws. It hired 100,000 community police officers and banned assault rifles. It implemented the National Police Corps, an ROTC-style university degree to improve police education – a program in which I was hired as associate director of the Florida Police Corps (the program was later defunded during the Bush years). 

 

President Bill Clinton shaking hands with Donald Trump in 2000 - photo Ralph Alswang, Office of the President, CC Wikimedia Commons 

OBAMA

Clinton’s crime bill is now criticized (even by Clinton) as a trigger to mass incarceration of minority populations (a trend that actually began long before 1994). It is also unclear that the Clinton crime bill was responsible for the homicide decline because crime also dropped in countries where there was no crime bill. For example, Canada’s crime rates also started declining a few years before this bill.

President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama on the Colonnade to the Oval Office, 2008 - White House photo, Eric Draper CC Wikimedia Commons

After Obama’s election in 2009, police excessive use of force spread across social media. There were anti-poverty protests, the Black Lives Matter movement and riots in city centers. It seemed impossible to predict murder rates. In the first half of Obama’s presidency, the homicide rate declined. Then it rose. Exactly the same thing happened to Trump. 

TRUMP

During the first two years of Trump’s presidency, the homicide rate declined from 5.3 to 5.0 homicides per 100,000 people. In his last two years, homicide rates jumped almost 40%, from 5.0 to 6.9. Recent election disinformation claimed otherwise, but the fact is that homicides increased at the end of Trump’s first tenure. Was he responsible? 

By now it should be obvious it is difficult to attribute homicide rates to any president. There are simply too many factors at play. And now, homicide rates are returning to pre-pandemic levels and crime is dropping. 

WHAT NOW?

Nothing here suggests that a forward-thinking presidential administration cannot make a difference. Sadly, few presidents deliberately craft a well-designed and properly implemented crime prevention policy based on proven community-building strategies. Kennedy and Johnson did that, yet it was poorly implemented, underfunded, and it largely failed. Clinton also did that and it might have cut some crime. Unfortunately, there were unintended consequences – exploding prison populations – and it’s unclear how much credit that program deserves.

The takeaway? There are well-designed, evidence-based strategies, like SafeGrowth, that do prevent crimes and sustain prevention effects for years. A presidential administration armed with the right tools and strategies can make a meaningful difference, but only through intentional and well-executed policy. History shows without that, it is a shot in the dark! 

Pictures in the sky - a vision for the unhoused in Prince George

  

Judge and Senator Calvin Murray Sinclair
- photo by Archkris, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wiki Commons

 by John Lyons

John Lyons spent many years as a patrol officer living and working in northern Canadian communities. A member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 28 years, he served as a major crime investigator. For 10 years he was an international crime analyst with Interpol Ottawa. Post policing he consulted government on health care fraud. Now he brings his extensive experience to SafeGrowth, particularly in conducting search conferences to prevent crime and build collaborative networks.

This week, a giant died in Canada. I met him many years ago when I gave testimony in an inquiry that he headed as a judge. I have remained impressed by him ever since. How we could use his wise advice now! 

I speak of the Ojibway First Nations Judge and retired Canadian Senator Calvin Murray Sinclair who died on November 4th. His passing is a deep and huge loss to Canada. Judge Sinclair was a champion of crime prevention through First Nations community development. From 2009, he was a leader in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and he had a profound impact on how Canadians, such as myself, contextualize colonial abuse of First Nations peoples. 

He shaped my perspective on addressing crimes and incivilities by economic and socially marginalized First Nations people. The problems Judge Sinclair brought to light are still apparent in the cities across northern communities, especially in the northern Canadian city of Prince George, British Columbia, a community with problems of homelessness, street crime, illicit drugs, and drug overdoses. The blog "Innovations in responding to street drugs" described those issues last year. 

The Prince George story illustrates Judge Sinclair’s message most succinctly. Last year's blog was about the 2023 SafeGrowth Person of the Year, Jordan Steward, and her downtown safe inhalation, harm reduction site – The Pounds Project – which was largely defunded.

Aerial photo of Prince George, British Columbia
- photo by CPG1100, CC BY-SA via Wiki Commons

Today, when thousands of drug-addicted and unhoused people populate Canadian cities, far too many hail from Indigenous backgrounds. Where is Judge Sinclair’s perspective at this point in history when so many Canadian cities, like Prince George, are suffering from this social pain?  

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?

First, one of the persistent paradoxes we know that emerges from top-down government responses to the unhoused, especially with people from marginalized communities, is the problem of inaction and the false belief that one-size-fits-all. True to form, this paradox has now reared its head according to news stories about conflicts between the city of Prince George and the provincial government. 

Second, having spent a great deal of time in Prince George, I have learned that it is not enough to treat the problem as an eyesore disrupting downtown businesses. The city must go beyond displacing these troubled souls to accommodations outside the city centre. This blog has previously described cities like Wheat Ridge, Colorado and Victoria, British Columbia that experienced the futility of simply rehousing the homeless without wraparound services.

 

Housing encampment in Prince George

Third, bottom-up strategies were already emerging in Prince George, for example the harm reduction that Jordan Steward attempted through her Pounds Project. That is what should be expanded and supported. We know that relocating the unhoused and drug addicted must involve far more than pushing the problem around the city like some perverse board game. We also know, from prior blogs, that successful projects already exist in places like Finland.

All these examples teach us that any relocation plan needs to consider setting up safer physical environments using strategies like 1st and 2nd-generation CPTED. They must also reinforce historic Indigenous culture. If there is to be any hope of redemption, that is the way to make things right. 

The Grand Medicine Society in Ojibwa syllabics. Judge Sinclair combined his wisdom as a member of this traditional First Nations society and as a Judge,  Canadian Senator, and a Companion of the Order of Canada.  

LOCAL ACTION PLANS 

Over the years I have joined members of the SafeGrowth team in delivering search conferences precisely to create local visions of new approaches and to build local capacity to make them happen. This approach produces success. For example, last year SafeGrowth facilitator, Professor Tarah Hodgkinson finished a successful search conference for safety planning in Brantford, Ontario.  

I see the value of empowering those in the community by teaching skills in crime prevention, neighborhood planning, community investment, and rehabilitation. This is how you build local capacity. Diffuse government programs rarely fit the local context, as suggested by recent provincial/municipal government conflicts in Prince George.

Judge Sinclair was a member of a traditional Ojibway medicine society and his Ojibway name was Mizanay Gheezhik. That translates to "the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky”. If there was ever a time when we needed a new vision of something bigger and better – new pictures in the sky – now is the time! 

Judge Sinclair, we miss your vision. 

The Great Internet Migration - the life and death of face-to-face

Les Deux Magots café in Paris, the penultimate face-to-face meeting place. For over a century, this legendary café became a place of debate for modern art, philosophy, and literature with the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Ernest Hemmingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Simone de Beauvoir, James Baldwin, and Jim Morrison. Much of our culture emerges from face-to-face conversations.

by Gregory Saville 

One way to reduce crime is to cut crime opportunities – make it tough to steal or harder to assault. Another way is to cut the motives to commit crime – improve living conditions, treat substance abuse, or build positive social relations between people. In either case, we need a functioning community with decent livability where people enjoy engaging in social life. That means creating places where social life encourages positive, productive, and secure face-to-face socializing (a goal of SafeGrowth). 

That brings me to my recent visits to a nearby movie theater, a bank, and McDonald’s. In each of these places, I noticed a new design and marketing ethos creeping up on us. I am referring to the trend of forcing people to migrate away from face-to-face interactions and towards the internet, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies are forcing us to shop online, deliver goods remotely, and replace face-to-face conversations with technology. It’s difficult to know how far this will continue.

Will we learn how to retain meaningful face-to-face connections in the face of new technologies?

NO ANTI-LUDDITE 

I am not making the claim of an anti-technology Luddite. True, of late I have admittedly been obsessively critical of AI, security technology, and the HiDWON future of high-security enclaves. 

In truth, I know there is an important role for advanced technology, especially in urban safety. In Nihlism Nixed, I wrote about the undeniable improvement in our overall quality of life globally from improvements in technology. 

But there is no denying the inexorable shift in how we build cities, run our businesses, entertain ourselves, and shop. We are being drawn away from face-to-face, a trend with an ominous outcome if we want a safer social life where people interact in a positive, productive, and joyful way. 

 

...out with the old! Old-style movie theatre seating -
 photo Jorge Simonet, CC BY-SA 4.0 Wiki Commons

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Take movies! Films are no longer box office hits until they stream online. Movie-goers hardly seem to matter. Watching films on a smartphone, or streaming at home…that’s the thing. In a futile attempt to stem the tide of crashing ticket sales, brick-and-mortar theatres are ripping out their old-style seats and installing half as many seats designed as airline-style, 1st class beds/seats with nearby liquor lounges and boutique food.

 

... and in with the new!
The redesigned bed seat cinema as theatres struggle to recover lost seat sales from online streaming - photo by Startrain844, CC BY-SA 4.0 by Wiki Commons

Consider banks. Gone (or going fast) are counter stations with tellers to converse with, share stories, and learn firsthand about better interest rates. Wikipedia describes how in-person bank tellers are “most likely to detect and stop fraud transactions” and that their position “requires tellers to be friendly and interact with customers.” Apparently, banks have something else in mind.

Instead, banks want you online at your computer, transferring funds electronically, or standing in front of metallic ITMs, the new "interactive teller machines" (basically, a souped-up, quasi-AI ATM). Teller jobs are declining and banks are becoming nothing more than empty foyers, private offices, with no tellers at all. 

 

The new bank - no tellers, only empty lounges and ITMs 

Then consider McDonald’s, the world’s biggest fast food chain, the restaurant for excited kids, and the PlayPlace area for toddlers, with a busy counter/drive-in service. The last time I visited McDonald’s I could not locate an employee. I eventually found her in a small nook behind the electronic E-clerks. Another example of face-to-face extinction! 

McDonald's... few employees. Instead, meet E-clerks

Few chairs and no people. Internet migration is working!

The article Robots will Replace Fast-Food Workers describes the automation in the fast food industry: 

"In 2013, the University of Oxford estimated that in the succeeding decades, there was a 92% probability of food preparation and serving becoming automated in fast food establishments."

THE INTERNET MIGRATION

I have not checked the data, but I predict the internet migration I describe here represents the largest immigration problem in history. I suspect some of the techno-crime-opportunity reduction theorists might celebrate. They do so foolishly. 

The truth is that we are social beings to the core. Our relationships define us. As philosopher and psychologist Viktor Frankl once wrote, we gain meaning from the world around us and through our relationships with each other – that is where we ultimately find meaning. 

"Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose."

The lack of meaningful, face-to-face relationships, and the social connections that emerge from them, make our lives poorer. Sustainably preventing crime becomes an unsolvable equation. And in that equation, loneliness is the enemy of meaning and purpose.

Desire paths to real paths... User-generated urbanism

Walkways and desire paths - a major player in urban design and safe walkability

by Mateja Mihinjac 

In our urban design work, we often confront the issue of pedestrian mobility, which is referred to as desire paths (or desire lines). We have previously discussed desire lines and their impact on crime in our blog on Happy Trails. We have also touched on the related CPTED concept of movement predictors in our blogs on laneways. All this comes down to the concept of walkability.

If we are serious about increasing walkability in our cities and towns – and if we listen to the CPTED message of increased safety through “eyes on the street” – then we must pay attention to the formal, and informal, paths that exist to get people from one place to another. 

Sidewalks, one-way or two-way streets, paths, gates, and trails are only one part of the movement picture. Desire lines are equally important since they predict how movement can trigger, or eliminate, crime opportunities. Leslie Malone’s urban design book Desire Lines calls them “the paths people create through simple usage.” It all depends on how we do them!

 

Ease of access, simple travel routes, or pathways to crime?
Desire lines are everywhere and offer CPTED clues to prevent crime

USER-GENERATED URBANISM

We tend to expend as little time and as little effort as possible to achieve our goal. This least effort principle also translates into our choice of routes traveled. This often results in the emergence of desire paths, what wiki calls the unplanned convenient shortcuts humans create on frequently navigated routes.  

Why don’t traffic engineers or landscape architects incorporate these desire paths into their designs and engineer the streets as people naturally use them? It turns out an approach termed user-generated urbanism might do just that.

John Bela, an urban designer and landscape architect, describes user-generated urbanism as: 

“the synthesis of top-down and bottom-up practices engaged synergistically to cultivate greater participation. This synthesis help us achieve the goals we outline with the adaptive metropolis of resilience and social justice.”

He suggests desire paths should inform the installation of permanent routes - but not before the users indicate their preferred pathways. This is similar to tactical urbanism, a community-driven style of permanent public infrastructure. However, while Bela refers to tactical urbanism as DIY urbanism, user-generated urbanism stresses the importance of combining bottom-up and top-down planning practices.

 

The  Ohio State University "Oval" today - a sophisticated network of user-generated walkways. It began in 1914 when urban designers paved the pathways on new laws that were created by users - Photo Google Earth 

One of the most famous successful examples of this strategy emerged in 1914 at Ohio State University. 

The University intentionally had no plan for the walkways between buildings across the campus and only paved them once the most eroded routes in the lawn – desire paths – clearly communicated to the architect where the routes should be installed. This resulted in an interesting intersection of routes across the large campus lawn, the Oval.

Listening to the principal users of streets may help us avoid the mistakes and unintended consequences, including potential issues such as vandalism and movement predictors, the concerns that Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) practitioners often deal with. 

 

Ad hoc attempt to block a natural desire path across public lawn

COLLABORATION DRIVES SUCCESS

In an ever-changing world user-generated urbanism teaches us the importance of adaptive designs and designs that serve the purpose of their users. This is why collaboration in designing our streets is as important as ever. In Second Generation CPTED and SafeGrowth we teach the concept of Connectivity, which ensures the neighbourhood is connected to outside actors including the government and agencies to realise their goals. 

Engineers, architects, planners and landscape architects should therefore strive for collaborative practices as much as possible – doing so might just give them the answers they’re looking for when designing the streets the users want.

We're Using Our Streets All Wrong 

- Dead Metal versus User-Generated Urbanism 

The "nudge" factor in CPTED

by Larry Leach

Larry is Executive Director of Calgary’s 12 Community Safety Initiative – a non-profit crime prevention collaborative. He was awarded the Queens Diamond and Platinum Jubilee medals for his contributions to community-building. He is a member of the SafeGrowth Network and now joins our blogging team.

In 2021 a book was published called Nudge: The Final Edition. Prior to that, there are several videos and TedTalks on the topic going back over a decade. Prof. Richard Thaler won the Nobel prize in 2017 for the theory. Nudge has become popular in behavioral economics studies. The concept is simple: Most people want to do the right thing, but instinctively take the path of least resistance. A reminder or nudge can put us all on a path towards doing the right thing. 

For example, after a sporting event or concert, I have often left garbage behind under the seat (like everyone else). My thinking: 'We all know they have cleaners coming in after, so no guilt'. One day after leaving a game, my friend picked up his beer can and plastic cup. I turned back and did the same. We then waited while many others put their recycling in one bin (the beer can) and the plastic cups in another. Simple, yes, but ultimately, we must be the change we want to see in the world. We can’t expect (or guilt) others to join us, but we can nudge them.

WHAT IS A NUDGE?

When translated, the sign in the above photo in Helsingborg, Sweden reads “A hello can save lives”. Mateja Mihinjac from our SafeGrowth team came across this yellow-painted bench in a downtown park. It was part of Helsingborg's "Friendship Benches Project" and it was an attempt to nudge those feeling alone and alienated seeking conversation to sit at the yellow part of the bench to encourage empathetic passersby to have a friendly conversation.  

According to research from the National Center for Suicide Research,“talking is one of the ways to prevent someone from actually attempting suicide”. It is a classic example of "nudge" design to encourage positive behaviour. And Swedish research suggests it is working.

When I hear behavioral economists and behavioral scientists talk about this topic I can’t help my mind wandering over to the CPTED space. Both CPTED and Safegrowth have behavioral elements. Designing a space to nudge others into doing what is best for the environment around them, not what is the most immediate personal win. Spaces to encourage gathering and community building will be activated by someone and followed by others to create a critical mass.

Research suggests that certain colours at night might trigger less violent behaviour

For example, an experiment was described during a TedTalk where a speaker put up signs that said, “Your mother doesn’t work here, clean up your own mess”. The result was a mess left everywhere. 

A successful example was putting three garbage receptacles on a beach in a high visibility area with different colours and signs above with examples of what to put in each colour bag. The latter was FAR more successful. A Nudge (subtle) is greater than an order or ultimatum. It gives the individual the agency to make their own decision to do the right thing. Do you ever hear anyone boast that they did the right thing because a sign told them? Rather do you hear “I always do that”? It can become a big part of someone’s personal brand or narrative. 

Prior SafeGrowth blogs have described the subtle impact of
coloured lighting and crime

HOW DO YOU NUDGE A SPACE? 

Nudging and CPTED take time to change people’s behavior and for most people, it will work. We all need to be patient to see the results over time. In Safegrowth the goal is stated on the website “If Neighborhoods had the skills, tools, and resources to remove, wherever possible, the motives and opportunity for crime.” A lofty goal, but certainly worth the time it takes to understand who and what assets your community has and what assets are needed to accomplish this.

One might think that a survey asking behavioural questions is a good idea, but the problem goes back to the YouTube nudge example above. Putting instructional signs up sounds like a good idea. People would likely answer 'put up a sign' in response to irresponsible behavior. That notion comes from the premise that we all want to do the right thing, but when we see others not do the right thing, we all follow. 

The Thaler and Suntein book "Nudge" revolutionized
how urban designers think about space

Therefore, it is not simply asking the question but instead, it is understanding what behavior needs a nudge. How often have you heard someone explaining bad behaviour by saying, "others do it, so why can’t I?" In criminology, this is known as the techniques of neutralization.

It is not enough to hope for good intentions. In SafeGrowth and in intelligent CPTED, when we look at designing spaces and activating spaces to create community, we always must keep in mind human behavior. For people to comply, they might need a little nudge or two.

 

Here's to our students - a life of purpose

Baltimore's Penn train station during our class night-time safety audits

by Gregory Saville

I taught my first CPTED seminar at my home university in Toronto while in graduate school when I was still a police officer in 1986. It launched my teaching, researching, planning, and consulting career. Since then we have modernized and expanded the CPTED program far beyond lights, locks, territorial controls, and target hardening. 

In recent years, with the help of the many smart and experienced members of our SafeGrowth Network, along with some leading academics, practitioners, community residents, researchers, and police officers, the SafeGrowth method has flourished as a powerful way to transform places. But today, after all these years and all this progress, I remain powerfully impressed by our students.

Landing home at the Denver International Airport - reflecting on past training

Landing in Denver last week after a flurry of training projects it struck me that I still revere the intelligence and tenacity brought to our crime prevention classes by the residents, police, city organizations, and community associations. Our recent courses in Madison, Vancouver, Baltimore, Palm Springs, Saskatoon, and New York City again reaffirmed my faith in our students. They have the most to gain and lose because they live in neighborhoods afflicted by crime. We affectionately call them SafeGrowthers, and they are remarkable.

They hold a mix of professional and personal skills and they bring a wealth of experience to the table, often with humor and passion. 

Reading, talking, walking, and thinking
- they engage the SafeGrowth material with full attention

Our students are an impressive bunch

Fighting crime and building neighborhood livability is a massive undertaking with many obstacles. And yet, even when faced with the miracle stupidity of government red tape, jumbled media distortions, and political manipulators, they still somehow manage to stay the course and get the job done. 

Outdoor Safety Audits are a popular part of the training

This year, once again, I listened to the obscene wickedness they face in the crime, drugs, and violence plaguing their neighborhoods. They tell us our training offers them tools and methods to succeed, and for that we are grateful. Yet their stories cause goosebumps:

• In one city, residents and police tackled a high-crime city-owned parking structure and presented the results to the city council, hoping for action to improve safety. A year later, after no action, a resident was robbed and murdered in exactly the way they predicted. Crime prevention is not always easy! 
• In one New York neighborhood, students came to class the day after a shooting homicide of one of their neighbors. 

Some of our students are already engaged in incredible prevention work, such as the Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence organization

• In a Baltimore class, one group tackled school violence in a high school where school administrators refused to collaborate with them. 
• In another city, residents were asked by some managers not to deliver their findings at final community presentations regarding violence at a homeless shelter. They did so anyway and, in doing so, they learned how to speak with diplomacy and candor. They ended up with a positive reaction from the shelter and charted out practical steps forward.
• In some cities, police shone as stellar leaders who engaged with the residents. In others, police never bothered to attend or participate (this being a free class in proven methods of preventing crime). 
• Some students themselves were victims of violence in their own neighborhoods. Others had once been incarcerated for violence, had reformed their lives, and were now community leaders. 

In New York, training occurred in multiple neighborhoods in different parts of the city 

When we speak to our students in class, online, or during virtual office hours, we work to provide the best resources and the latest research findings on preventing crime. Usually, we end up providing emotional support and encouragement. 

During this election season, I know who deserves our vote and whose cause we should ensure politicians support. It should be these peace warriors who do this magnificent work. To all our students from your instructors and from everyone in the SafeGrowth network... Thank you! Thank you!