The "Arkansas Economic Recovery Strategy" published by Heartland Forward is a must-read for anyone interested in furthering good ideas on improving our state's future.
The research-based report analyzed data to arrive at aspirational recommendations in six main areas: talent and workforce, innovation and research, entrepreneurship and small business, health care, supply chains and logistics, and high-speed Internet.
As a blueprint for economic growth, however, it did not address one of the most critical inhibitors to all social progress. Crime not only causes enormous economic damage in terms of property and personal injury, but also casts shadows and doubts that can douse even the most luminous visions.
Once it reaches a certain point in any neighborhood or locality, crime negates all socioeconomic improvement efforts.
The challenges surrounding crime control are compounded by the fact that it is a cancer on society that is practiced and suffered locally, but analyzed and diagnosed nationally.
Nationwide trends may figure into Wall Street stock exchange values, but Main Street economies across America live and die by hometown crime rates.
Likewise, the criminal-justice apparatus is viewed as a mass system, when in reality each crime is committed individually by individuals with different situations, backgrounds and circumstances.
Just as the time is right to pursue big ideas about transformational economic strategy, it's also time to do something about Arkansas crime. And a good start is first to look backward.
When violent crime began spiking in the mid-1960s, it was a shock to America. President Lyndon Johnson appointed a commission to study accelerating crime rates, which published "The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society" in 1967.
The findings in that report make for sobering reading today, particularly since many of the commission's well-intentioned recommendations proved ineffective. We now know much more about what doesn't work than researchers 54 years ago did.
Its opening paragraphs could have been typed this week.
"There is much crime in America, more than ever is reported, far more than ever is solved, far too much for the health of the nation. Every American knows that. Every American is, in a sense, a victim of crime."
And that summation was based on 1965 crime data, which pales against today's numbers and rates.
More important, however, is the difference between then and now in Arkansas, especially in our rates relative to other states.
In 1965, Arkansas ranked extremely low in non-violent crimes of burglary, larceny and vehicle theft (43rd, 44th and 46th respectively). In violent crimes of rape, robbery and aggravated assault Arkansas fared worse, but still somewhat in the middle at 24th, 31st and 18th.
But in 2019 (the latest year for crime data), Arkansas catapulted to single-digit rankings in four of those six divisions: third in the nation in rape, fourth in assault, second in burglary and sixth in larceny.
If we hope to achieve superior economic recovery in a competitive environment with other states, we cannot be a top-five leader in multiple crime-rate categories.
Clearly, other states have done better in reducing crime, but that's not the only reason we moved ahead as a high-crime state.
Our rates have gotten worse, too. The sizable rate increases in robbery (twice as high), burglary (almost twice as high) and larceny (three times higher) would be alarming on their own, if not for shocking growth in other crimes.
Forcible-rape rates in Arkansas are five times higher than in 1965, and actual incidents are 10 times what they were. Aggravated assault (which frequently involves a deadly weapon) are four times higher.
Those rates have to come down before our state ranking can fall and communities can begin to realize advances outlined in the Heartland Forward report.
As noted in the 1967 report summary, crime makes people worry, and worried folks often move away from places they perceive as unsafe. They abandon parks, lose faith in government's ability to protect, and even question entire societies in which so many people behave so badly. High crime kindles suspicion and skepticism; both are kryptonite to the kind of civic trust and investment necessary to grow the state's economy.
The underlying causes named in 1967 bedevil us still: unruly youth, widespread drug abuse, too much poverty in an affluent society, criminal greed for the easy dollar. And as warned then, "the criminal justice system ... was not designed to eliminate the conditions in which most crime breeds."
What's new, and more problematic, now are political attitudes explicitly listed as barriers to eradicating crime in 1967, specifically: "Each time a citizen," the report said, "is disrespectful to an officer of the law ... he contributes his mite to crime. That much is obvious."
Losing sight of the obvious often leads to losing our way. If every anti-police activist screaming obscenities at officers is considered an accessory to overall crime, that explains a lot.
The fundamental challenges of crime have been evident for half- a-century. We know what policies and programs didn't alleviate crime. New thinking on solutions is required if we ever want crime rates to go back down in Arkansas--and economic growth to go up.
Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.
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OPINION | DANA KELLEY: Crime negates growth - Arkansas Online
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