Crime Prevention Could Get Brainy

A new study from the University of Cincinnati strengthens the evidence that lead exposure is linked to criminal behavior, and could refocus the spotlight on lead and juvenile crime in Milwaukee. The first study to follow lead-exposed children from before birth into adulthood, it shows that even relatively low levels of lead permanently damage the brain. The least-contaminated children in the study, with levels near average for U.S. children, still showed a link between criminal behavior and lead exposure.

Lead increases the very behaviors that can predict aggressive and violent behavior in children: distractibility, impulsiveness, restlessness, and a shortened attention span. Researchers found that every 5-microgram-per-deciliter increase in blood lead levels at age 6 was accompanied by a 50% increase in the incidence of violent crimes later in life. A related study found that those with the highest blood levels of lead during childhood had brains that were 1.2% smaller than normal.

Locally, Milwaukee has a nasty history with lead. A 2005 Journal Sentinel story reported the incidence of childhood lead poisoning in Milwaukee at 9.8%, six times the national average of 1.6%. In the past decade, an estimated 19,000 Milwaukee children younger than six have tested positive for elevated lead levels. Milwaukee’s high rates are attributed to the city’s older housing stock, which contains lead-based paint. A map of lead in local housing darkens the city’s poorest neighborhoods with black dots indicating over 8,000 lead-poisoned children per dot. Progress has been made in Milwaukee, which has a variety of lead abatement efforts. The number of poisoned children under age 6 dropped from a height of 31.9% to 9.8% between 1997 and 2004.

The Cincinnati study indicates that lead abatement services and screenings are an investment with large long-term payoffs. Funding lead abatement has the potential to save money in the long-run on expensive juvenile detention and special education services, and could potentially keep more people off welfare and increase their incomes over a lifetime.

Such long-term investment arguments parallel evidence recently presented by local police and sheriffs as well as the national group Fight Crime Invest in Kids that high-quality early childhood education leads to crime reduction (and cost savings) in the long-run due to positive influences on still-developing brain neurology. The future of crime prevention might include neurologists, preschool teachers and lead abatement specialists working together, while economists chart the return on investment.

Lens of "constrained choice" can foster new policy options

A new book by RAND sociologist Chloe Bird and Harvard sociologist Patricia Rieker presents a fresh way of viewing individual choices about health that could provide a useful way of examining a range of social policy issues. In their book Gender and Health: The Effects of Constrained Choices and Social Policies, a model of “constrained choice” reveals how family, work, community and government shape individuals’ opportunities, thus constraining their choices.

The constrained choice model shows how policy decisions can have unintended effects on individual behavior. Thus, traits like health are not only an individual responsibility, but one that is also shared by decision-makers at each level of social policy, community actions, work and family. The researchers’ examples show that constrained choice related to health can result from:

National-level social policies that focus on the needs of women and children over those of men




Community decisions about neighborhoods that limit opportunities for walking and exercise




Workplace actions that limit employees’ autonomy over their work and schedule




Health research that overlooks the consequences of the growing complexity of balancing work and family.

With their focus on gender and health, Bird and Rieker use the constrained choice model to answer the question, “Why are some women and men able to create and maintain healthy lifestyles, while others are not?” This model, however, could be applied to other policy areas in which it is helpful to view outcomes as resulting from a web of complex inputs rather than solely individual decision-making.

For instance, the answer to a policy-related question like, “Why don’t all people stay in school so they will earn more money in the long-run?” is not, simply, that some people are irrational decision-makers. Rather, such an answer might be seen more clearly through a lens that analyzes the constraints on the choices of the decision-maker that are created by social/government policy, community and family factors.

A constrained choice lens changes the way one searches for policy solutions. While the goal of policy reform would be the same (a healthy society, for example, or increased high school graduation rates), the route to creating policy interventions would have to include questioning whether other policies create unintended negative consequences or disincentives. Additionally, interventions would seek to increase opportunities for people to pursue the positive action in question, thus loosening the constraints on their choices and decision-making.

Individual responsibility’s importance cannot be underestimated, but models that reflect the complex forces that impact decision-making could yield new strategies for addressing social policy problems.

Smoking ban research: policy kills

A recent issue of The Economist includes a small blurb on new research published in the Journal of Public Economics by two Wisconsin economists. Scott Adams, of UWM, and Chad Cotti, of UW-Oshkosh, have found that when public smoking bans are implemented at the county level, drunk driving fatalities in adjacent counties can rise. Presumably, this is due to smokers no longer patronizing local establishments and driving to and from bars in the counties that have not prohibited public smoking.

For instance, they found that when Colorado's Boulder County banned smoking, fatal accidents in Jefferson County, between Boulder and Denver, went up by 40%.

Smoking ban opponents will find this research useful in arguing that the ban's benefits may not be outweighed by its other impacts. Smoking ban proponents may use the findings to argue that a statewide ban is the most appropriate, so as to reduce the potential for cross-county drunk-driving by smokers.

However, the economists also looked at statewide bans, finding, for instance, that accidents increased 26% in Pennsylvania's Delaware County after the neighboring state of Delaware introduced a smoking ban in 2002.

However, it's unclear which way this finding cuts for Wisconsin, as our neighbors Minnesota and Illinois both have new smoking bans in effect this year, while Iowa's goes into effect soon. Would a statewide smoking ban endanger our citizens on the road, forcing them to drive to Michigan's Upper Peninsula? Or, without a statewide ban are we (at least in our southern and western border counties) about to see an influx of intoxicated drivers from the Twin Cities and Chicagoland?

PPF Pearls: Federal health funds not a shot-in-the-arm for Wisconsin

A report released this week confirms yet again that our state receives far fewer federal dollars than the average state.

This time the Trust for America's Health analyzed funds from three federal health agencies and found Wisconsin ranks 45th in terms of per capita spending by the Center for Disease Control, 48th in spending by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and 31st in spending by the Hospital Preparedness Program.

While most of these federal funds are distributed on a formula basis, according to each state's population, some are competitive grants. As the Forum's past research has shown, these grants are a very important piece of the federal funding pie; compared to formula funding, local policymakers have much more control over their ability to attract competitive funds.

In the area of public health, one reason Wisconsin may not be competitive for these grants is because of the low priority our state places on public health spending. The same report finds Wisconsin spends just $9.16 per person annually on public health, ranking us 50th out of the 50 states and D.C. The national median for annual state public health spending: $33.26 per capita.

Are you your own worst enemy?

The Business Journal recently reported the findings from an Aurora Health Care public health survey ("Violence cited as top city health problem.")

Violence was stated as the city of Milwaukee’s top health problem followed by alcohol and drug use and chronic disease. The article states 58% of those surveyed felt violence was one of the 3 biggest health issues Milwaukee faces. However, obesity-related diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, are the main concern of insurance companies (Fischer, 2007). So what should one be more concerned about in Milwaukee? Violence or chronic disease? The answer may depend upon your age group.


The Wisconsin Interactive Statistics on Health from the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services allows users to query for the most prevalent causes of mortality in our seven county area. The data from the graph above suggests people’s fears of violence as a health concern may be warranted if you are young. Ages 15-29 are more likely to be killed by violence versus cancer or heart disease, and they are even more likely to die in an accident.

There may be several reasons why more people in the survey feared violence versus chronic disease. The immediate danger of someone being the victim of a criminal act may be more frightening than the prolonged danger of developing a chronic disease. Lets say you were to put a person in a room with a serial killer and a doughnut; chances are your test subject would be much more fearful of the murderer. However, in the real world we are more likely to be tempted by junk food versus chased by violent criminals. It may be that people are more fearful of what others may do to them versus what they may do to themselves. Also, media attention to violence may instill fear among viewers more so than warnings about lifestyle habits leading to certain chronic diseases. Often times the six o'clock news will show a crime scene with victims being hauled off in body bags or stretchers, but they often do not show the actual victims of chronic disease fatalities.

Also check out the national odds of dying of certain diseases and injuries.