Are you too busy to read as much as
you would like? Many of us miss worthwhile fiction and even
job related non-fiction unless we plan well for the beach vacation
days or the next snow day. So, consider getting an audio book or
CD and just listen to that book. Your public library may gladly
help you to locate and reserve audio books ‘on line.’ You may even
want to request DJJ Training hours for such job relevant
‘reading.’
Freakonomics, 2005, by
economist Steven D. Levitt is really a relaxed criminal justice
study. The author explains life around us from a rewards vs.
consequences (incentives in his terms) fame of reference.
DJJ clients on probation, in detention, in a correctional center,
are often encouraged to do likewise. Why do drug dealers or
successful entrepreneurs, often live with their mothers? This is
one of his many questions. The tales lived by ‘Sid’ Venkatesh
while a PhD candidate and a Chicago gang observer for six years
are enlightening. Levitt concludes that only the TOP leaders make
more than a pittance. According to Freakonomics, few
Wisconsin farm girls make it in Hollywood and few aspiring high
school athletes make it in the NFL or NBA. In addition, crack
dealing is lucrative for only a few, a very few, dealers. Budding
drug lords or gang leaders find that there are ‘lots of people
willing and able to do a job that generally does not pay
well.” Levitt also examines parenting and how parents, in
their first official act, sometime assign high end or low-end
names (loser, boozer names) to their children. In a 2004 NAACP
speech, Bill Cosby “lambasted lower class blacks for a variety of
self destructive behaviors, including the giving of ghetto
names.”
VJJA readers may want to listen to
and reflect on the segments on our increased reliance on prisons,
the broken faulty Broken Windows theory, urban policing in
general, and why a swimming pool is statistically more deadly than
a gun. You can learn much by listening to Freakonomics, on
your next drive to Richmond or Roanoke.
Or, you might want to consider
another even newer book:
Mistakes Were Made: But Not by
me, 2007, by social psychologist Carol Travis and
Elliott Aronson is a cognitive dissonance study in the spirit of
the seminal Group Think by Janis. We all need to understand
cognitive dissonce and ‘the emperor’s new clothes’ thinking and
decision making in our jobs and lives. Alternatively, if you want
to reflect on the roots of mediation and
restorative justice from the Harvard Negotiation Project people,
Fisher and Ury, listen to a short reading of Getting to
Yes.
VJJA Advocate readers
are invited to suggest book review topics or themes for 2008 via
comments to the editor.
(Eric Assur is employed by the 17th
Court Service Unit in Arlington).
