NSF PR 96-3 - January 24, 1996
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$12.1 Million Award Will Create National Consortium
for Research on Violence
Item: FBI statistics show that arrests in 1990 for
aggravated assault peaked among males between the
ages of 15 and 24. In that age group, 6.5 males per
1,000 in the U.S. were arrested for these violent
crimes. The number of arrests drop to half of that
by age 35, and a third by age 40.
In response to concern about violence in the U.S.,
the National Science Board has approved a plan by
the National Science Foundation (NSF) to award $12.1
million to Carnegie Mellon University to establish
a National Consortium For Research on Violence. The
National Science Board, NSF's policymaking body, approved
the plan at its December 14 meeting.
"The consortium will generate fundamental knowledge
about the causes and consequences of violence," says
Cora Marrett, NSF's assistant director for social,
behavioral and economic sciences. "It will not only
provide new data, but it will also integrate substantial
but fragmented studies, theory, and research methods"
into a useful body of knowledge. "Until now," she
says, "there has been no effective mechanism for cooperation
among researchers in diverse fields of science to
systematically examine this subject which has prompted
so much scientific and public concern. There is now."
The new consortium is a major step in a broader effort
among federal agencies to bring rigorously reviewed
scientific knowledge to bear on the issue of violence
in the U.S. In a report titled "Understanding and
Preventing Violence," a panel of experts convened
by the National Research Council in 1993 called for
a long-term commitment to support basic research in
the area.
Carnegie Mellon University plans to assemble a team
of 39 researchers from 24 research institutions in
11 states, Canada, and four European countries. The
National Consortium For Research on Violence will
be directed by Alfred Blumstein, the J. Erik Jonsson
Professor of Urban Systems and Operations Research
in Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III
School of Public Policy and Management.
"Crime -- particularly violent crime -- has been identified
for the past several years as the public's number
one concern," says Blumstein, "yet we cannot be effective
in dealing with it without developing a strong base
of knowledge about its causes and about the consequences
of various kinds of intervention." The consortium
of scientists will look at the development of violence
in individuals and try to discover how and why violent
patterns develop in some individuals and not in others.
Related issues will include drug abuse and drug markets,
guns, gangs and socialization processes in families
and communities.
Some trends are clear. "FBI figures on arrest rates
show that armed assault, like most violence, is overwhelmingly
a male phenomenon," says NSF's Marrett. "They also
show that violence is a youth phenomenon: both males
and females between the ages of 15 and 29 are far
more likely to be arrested for armed assault than
any other age group. The question is: why?"
NSF funding is to be awarded over five years, beginning
with $4 million in the current fiscal year. Two other
federal agencies have committed support. The National
Institute of Justice plans to contribute $200,000
to help communicate and disseminate information, and
the Department of Housing and Urban Development is
transferring almost $2 million to NSF to go toward
the $12.1 million five-year total.
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