| Criminologists are offering a number of explanations | | | | and realized that 60 percent of them had quit school |
| for an increase in the murder rate in some cities over | | | | over a five-year period. |
| the last month, according to a recent wall Street | | | | There are a number of organizations that are trying |
| Journal article. In Washington in April 2008 there were | | | | to do something about the negative aspects in their |
| 18 murders during a 13-day violence spurt. | | | | communities, including Children of the City in Brooklyn |
| Other cities including Chicago and Philadelphia had | | | | who believe that improving the quality of life involves |
| similar murder waves during the same period. This | | | | breaking the cyclical effects of poverty, therefore |
| leads criminologists to wonder if this signifies the srat | | | | giving families hope. In this community alone there is |
| of a new trend. People studying crime tell us they | | | | a 48 percent high school drop out rate. With 30,000 |
| can see no easy explanations, other than the usual | | | | children, that means 15,000 are dropping out. One in |
| usual reasons like poverty, gangs, easy access to | | | | three families are under the poverty level. A culture |
| guns and the economy. | | | | of drugs and gang, 1,000 deaths annually. Youth |
| Murder rate statistics overall have dropped for years, | | | | today are into violent acts and drugs. |
| but lately have been inching up in the black | | | | They believe that the only way to fix the problem is |
| community -- accounting for only 13 percent of the | | | | via educating kids and their families. For more than |
| country's population. However more | | | | two and a half decades, this group of volunteers has |
| African-Americans are killed in the U.S. than any other | | | | been making a difference through programs like its |
| racial group, and it accounts for 49 percent of all | | | | Create Success program, countering the near 50 |
| murder victims, states the FBI. | | | | percent drop out rate and instigating positive change. |
| One Cincinnati county medical examiner analyzed all | | | | Almost half of the kids enrolled in this education |
| the available data on his region's most recent murder | | | | program believe that it helped them stay off of |
| victims and he thinks that the main reason is | | | | drugs, and gave them confidence and hope for a |
| education - or lack of it. This Hamilton County medical | | | | better future. |
| examiner studied the death certificates of his victims | | | | |