Energy Boomtowns are Magnets for Sex Offenders

graphic via nbc33tv.com

Communities economically dependent on the oil and gas industries are havens for sex offenders, according to a new study published in the journal Conservation Biology.

The study used data from nine county attorney’s offices to determine how many registered sex offenders moved into communities in and around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in Wyoming. Several towns in this area are dependent on the oil and gas industries, while others rely on agriculture and tourism to maintain their economies.

Researchers found that over a nine-year period, the number of sex offenders grew two to three times more in the energy boomtowns than in similar communities dependent on agriculture and tourism. The total increase in sex offenders in all of the GYE communities was 300% from 1997 to 2008.

Why this is happening seems related to the “social and economic upheaval” that occurs in communities dependent on the energy industry. At first, the prospect of employment and higher-than-average salaries draws large numbers of people to these towns. As the economies of the towns rise and fall with the industry, their populations rise and fall. Not only is this dynamic linked to an influx of sex offenders, but also higher rates of domestic violence, drug abuse and overall crime.

In particular, the use of crystal meth has followed the rise and fall of energy towns in Wyoming and other Western states. The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation reports that methamphetamine investigations hit an all-time high of 60% of all drug investigations in 2005.

Where meth use is prevalent, so is violent crime.  According to the Association for Criminal Justice Research, meth users are 30% more likely to commit more crimes after release from prison than non-meth users, and three times more likely to report committing violent acts overall. 

But aside from meth use, energy boomtowns in other parts of the world fit a comparable pattern of increased crime linked to social upheaval. The study cites similar statistics in Ecuador and northern Canada. 

 

HT: EurekAlert

Violence Linked to Who Kids Play With, Not What They Play

A new study in the Journal of Pediatrics suggests that in comparison to other factors, exposure to media violence is a poor predictor of youth violence. The study focused on violence in television and video games, comparing it to a range of other influences, including:  delinquent peer associations, exposure to physical domestic violence in the home, family conflict, neighborhood stress, antisocial personality traits, and depression level.

The subjects were 603 predominantly Hispanic children, ages 10-14, and their parents or guardians.  Dr. Christopher Ferguson from Texas A&M University, one of the study’s authors, described the results to GamePolitics.com:

We assessed results across seven separate measures of youth violence and serious youth aggression, including the Child Behavior Checklist aggression and rule-breaking scales as reported by both children and their parents, involvement in violent and non-violent criminal behaviors and bullying behaviors against peers. We found that depressed mood and association with delinquent peers were the strongest and most consistent risk factors for youth violence across outcome measures.  Parents’ use of verbal cruelty in domestic relationships and the child’s antisocial personality traits were also reasonably strong predictors of violent behavior.  By contrast video game violence exposure and television violence exposure were not found to be predictors of youth violence.

Aside from the results about TV and video games, I find it interesting that parents’ use of “verbal cruelty” was a stronger predictor of youth violence than physical domestic abuse, which came out lower on the list.  Most telling of all, association with delinquent peers was the strongest predictor, edging out everything except preexisting depression by a significant margin.

The peer result jibes with controversial research indicating that parental influence is less influential on children than peer influence.  Psychologist Judith Rich Harris set off a firestorm when she argued that parents matter much less, at least when it comes to determining the behavior of their children, than is typically assumed, and that their peer group is far more important.  Her book, The Nurture Assumption, contends that we parents think that we pull more weight with our kids than we really do, all the while their peer group is shaping their personality and influencing their behavior.  We might be able to stop them from playing Grand Theft Auto or watching 24, but when they’re not in the house, all bets are off.

Unsettling as that news may be, it does help put the emphasis for parents more on what matters: finding out who their kids are hanging around with and whether they should be.  That’s much harder than policing TV and video games, though convenient scapegoats they may be.