Aftermath

This was a very interesting chapter. I was beginning to wonder when Sampson was going to dive more into violence in Chicago. Sure, he has mentioned it in previous chapters and has used some brief examples but this chapter seems to focus in greater detail about the problem of Violence in the south side of Chicago. When I was there in the beginning of the semester for a work training, I heard a great deal from some local fiends about crime and some of the neighborhoods that they had found themselves in on numerous occasions, sometimes on accident and some times on purpose (for some stupid reason) I, myself, did not have any interest in exploring some of those parts that they had told me about but they are some of the same neighborhoods that Sampson has discussed throughout the book.
Anyways, I agree with Sampson and his findings when he is talking about the correlation between raising foreclosure rates and crime rates. He also, pointed out that mixed neighborhoods seemed to feel the impact of raising crime rates and foreclosure rates more than that of some of the higher en housing (downtown Chicago and northern Chicago) What I found very interesting was when he was talking about community based organizations and how they helped not only lower crime rates but also emperical data suggested that those same organizations helped moderating the toll of the economic crisis and the more organizations a community had the lower the foreclosure rates were and ending one of the segments by stating, "Community-based prevention is apparently not just for crime."
The next question, was very interesting. "Why does violence unhinge some communities and draw others together?" Sampson seems to answer this in the same segment and I would tend to agree with him. There seemed to be two contributing factors that determined weather a community fused together and "took back their communities and those that seemed to break apart and concede to the violence and crime.
1. He says that those communities that measured higher in collective efficacy in the PHDCN surveys were those that seemed to hold things together better.
2. The amount of community based organizations and non profit organizations that were based in the community.
I am sure that there are many other contributing factors that determine how a community and a neighborhood react to crime, violence and tragedy; but from what Sampson eludes to many times in the chapter, collective efficacy and the involvement of a communities citizens is crucial to its success or detriment.

I am still plugging along, researching more about globalization. I have found some fantastic videos on the subject that have really helped me understand more on the subject. I found one video where President Obama discusses the countries economic challenges and opportunities in regards to the futreu of America's economic future. It is a campaign speech but the information on globalization is interesting. President Obama on Globalization

There is also another fantastic video by Thomas Freidman talking about the evolution and globalization at Williams College in 2006. It is a long video but it is also very very interesting. I highly recommend watching it. The World is Flat: Thomas Friedman.