This is a bit misleading, Mike. Rates of aggravated assault and rape decreased significantly from what would have been expected over the period of the study. Robberies stayed about the same. And the homicide rate (around 10 per week) over the eight weeks of the study was also about the same as "normal." There was a "spike" of 10 homicides over one 36-hour period (there apparently was some sort of gang battle), but the following week there were only 4 homicides. So it evened out statistically. You just happened to be there the week of the "spike."
I think "shootings" would be included in the "aggravated assault" category; that rate declined significantly over the course of the study. One would, of course, have hoped that the homicide rate would have decreased, but no joy. OTOH, the homicide rate didn't increase, contrary to what some reporters claimed. Here's the text of the study as published in Social Indicators Research:: http://www.istpp.org/crime_prevention/ http://www.istpp.org/crime_prevention/ Here's an article by one of the study's authors rebutting a very sloppy article attempting to debunk the study in Skeptical Inquirer: http://istpp.org/crime_prevention/voodoo_rebuttal.html http://istpp.org/crime_prevention/voodoo_rebuttal.html It addresses the 36-hour homicide spike in some detail. I took my *flying* block in DC during the big campaign there. There was a huge spike in murders and shootings at the time. I guess the TM explanation was, *well you should have seen what it would have been like had we not been there.* On Wednesday, April 2, 2014 1:27 AM, nablusoss1008 <[email protected]> wrote: Along with the mounting medical evidence of the various health benefits of meditation, research shows group meditation can actually reduce crime rates in the greater population. http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/research-shows-group-meditation-can-reduce-crime-rates/ http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/research-shows-group-meditation-can-reduce-crime-rates/
