The Final Straw

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 31st May 2021

Most of us are familiar with the idiom, “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, the idea that it may only take a small thing, when added to many others, to cause an extreme reaction or response. It is often used as a mechanism to explain, extreme acts of violence, where the trigger that caused the violent explosion seemed trivial and/or inconsequential e.g., someone smashes a glass into the face of a person who they believe jumped ahead of them in a queue at a bar etc. Such extreme reactions are often explained away by suggesting that the person had...Click To Read More

Police Response Times & Crimes

Gershon Ben Keren

Tue 25th May 2021

Every now and again I’ll have a conversation with someone who will tell me that they don’t really need to think about personal/property safety because they live in a locale where there is a strong/highly visible police presence, and/or law-enforcement response times are extremely quick etc. In this article I want to take a look at whether these things do in fact have an effect upon actual crime rates, or whether a strong police presence merely “reassures” residents that they are safe i.e., they reduce the fear of crime but not crime itself. Historically “patrol” has been seen as one of...Click To Read More

Evolutionary Aspects of Combat

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 17th May 2021

Humans have evolved to fight differently to most other animals e.g., we don’t have strong jaws that can rip flesh, or claws that can easily rake, causing serious damage and injury etc. This might explain why, unlike other animals, we didn’t develop “rituals” and “displays” designed to avoid conflict, such as the acts of posturing and submission used by wolves and other social canines to try and settle conflicts i.e., these animals have the physical ability to kill each other easily/quickly, in ways that humans are inherently lacking – by and large we need to use tools to accomplish serious...Click To Read More

Commitment

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 10th May 2021

One of the ideas/concepts that influenced policies regarding crime in the 1980’s and 1990’s was that of the “Super Predator”. There was a belief that certain urban environments were creating juvenile criminals who would go on to become committed offenders who wouldn’t age out of crime; one of the few phenomena that criminologists agree upon i.e., that most criminals cease or reduce their activities in their twenties and beyond, as they get older. Crime and violence are typically a young person’s game that is largely motivated by youthful impulsivity – something that decreases with age - and peer pressure etc....Click To Read More

Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 3rd May 2021

There is nothing like a statistic to make a point, even if that point is obvious without one. I’m a big fan of statistics and tend to enjoy quantitative research, far more than qualitative; that doesn’t mean that I don’t see the value of research that employs non-quantitative methods, but at the macro/”Big Picture” level, I like to have a “number” that is more significant than chance to explain a set of actions and behaviors etc. However, when such a number/statistic exists, it is not enough to merely accept it, even when it appears fairly conclusive e.g., 64% of street...Click To Read More