BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Poor education, poverty, natural
disasters. All reasons why a pair of LSU criminology professors say our city
and state have watched crime continue to escalate. And they say this crime wave
has been almost a decade in the making.
Dr. Edward Shihadeh and his
colleague, Dr. Matthew Lee, have spent the last ten years trying to focus on
the main root of the crime in the Capital City. Their research shows that a
larger number of men fall in the 15 to 20-year-old range these days - a group is
a large part of the city's problems. They've dubbed a segment of this age group
"floaters".
"They're not in school. They
don't have a job. They're not even in the labor force. They're not in the
military. They're not connected to their local church . They're not connected
to their local institutions," said Shihadeh.
Shihadeh and Lee say these young
men, disconnected from society, tend to be the most violent and dangerous
people.
"Drug markets tend to be staffed
by young people who haven't fully developed their impulse control anyway. And
then throw firearms in the mix...that really was throwing fuel on the fire,"
said Lee.
The professors are working with
the brave anti-crime program to target areas with high floater populations and
hopefully embrace the public who may be scared to go to the police.
"The efforts of law enforcement
that are going around in Baton Rouge right now will go a long way towards
diminishing that concern because it's largely driven by mistrust of the
police," said Lee.
The researchers also say it's
time for Louisiana politicians to bite the bullet and put their money where
they mouth is.
"Texas may not have any income
tax," said Shihadeh. "So where do they get all of their money, from property
tax. And their schools are fantastic, and their crime rates are lower than
ours. The proof is in the pudding."
The professors say New Orleans
also has a high number of floaters meaning high crime there.
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