Letters: Cures for crime
Thank heaven for your contributor Charles Arthur for finally discovering
the cause of crime, unemployment, and its cure, employment (Forum, 20 November).
He has also discovered what does not work: ‘Punishment doesn’t really put
people off.’
There is just one slight hesitation I must admit to; the facts don’t
bear Arthur out. In a recent study (‘The effect of war on crime’, Psychological
Reports, vol 73, p 381), David Lester analysed employment and crime figures
in the US. What he found, in brief, was that ‘when unemployment rates were
higher, crime rates were lower’. He concluded that ‘the present study .
. . yielded a strong negative association between unemployment and crime
rates from 1960-1989′ (no earlier figures were available). When I grew up
in post-First-World-War Germany, unemployment was much worse than anything
ever experienced in England, yet there was very little crime. Perhaps Arthur
just needs to multiply his theory by -1 to get it right?
Perhaps the same applies to his other discovery. There are many hundreds
of studies to show that punishment does put people (and animals!) off; I
can think of very few studies that do not give positive results. When the
prospect of punishment is absent, as during riots, or when police are on
strike, there is a great increase in crime. Where punishment is severe,
as in some Arab countries, crime is almost absent.
Arthur argues that the answer to the question of what to do ‘depends
on your political views’. Should they not rather depend on scientific evidence?
H. J. Eysenck Institute of Psychiatry University of London
Letters: Risk ratios
Re the debate about possible deaths caused by Thorp (Comment, 13 November
and Letters, 27 November). The following table is calculated from the report
of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys for England and Wales for
1985. It shows the risk ratio associated with different causes of death:
All deaths: 1:84.5
Road traffic accidents: 1:10330
Suicide: 1:11299
Accidental falls: 1:12771
Drowning and suffocation: 1:59171
Fire and flames: 1:76923
Accidental poisoning: 1:83333
Accidents – natural factors: 1:109890
Homicide: 1:144927
Medical procedures: 1:322580
Railway accidents: 1:555555
Water transport accidents: 1:833333
Air transport accidents: 1:1111111
Radiation accidents: 0 (no proven deaths)
The table appears to show that building new roads will lead to more
deaths than any other activity. Should we stop building roads? Since the
chance of dying from cancer is about 1:5, another four deaths in 25 years
hardly changes the risk. The risk of death from cancer as a result of the
operation of Thorp (if real) is relatively trivial and there can be no argument
for disallowing its operation on these grounds. All industrial plants carry
risks; Thorp is almost certainly safer than most.
Steuart Campbell Edinburgh
Letters: Risk ratios
Comparing average estimated deaths ‘there would almost certainly be
some good news’ . . . ‘compared with running a coal-fired power station
or spraying fields with pesticides.’ However, an ‘objective’ measure should
surely include a degree of confidence (‘these are fairly soft estimates’)
and a measure of the likely maximum and minimum casualties. A new bypass
can only do so much damage. For a large potential radiation source the worst
one is bound to be very much worse.
Given the degree of uncertainty and the possible serious consequences
of an underestimate of the risk of nuclear power, Thorp compares unfavourably
even with road building.
L. C. Gamsa-Jackson St Albans, Hertfordshire
Letters: Absolutely super
The demise of the superconducting supercollider is a tragedy but as
Sod’s 13th law states, you can’t get any governmental body to agree infinite
funding to a project with two ‘supers’ in its name
Surely ‘super 2 conducting collider’ would be scientifically
correct, or less probably ‘super(conducting collider)’, and much more likely
to impress.
Pete Mason London
Letters: Team intact
Thistle Diary (20 November) discussed contaminated land research at
Warren Spring laboratory, indicating that the Department of Trade and Industry
is considering transferring the contaminated land team to AEA Technology.
The discussion further stated that it was not clear whether pilot scale
facilities were transferring. The opinion of ‘one young researcher’ was
quoted implying that the team would no longer be able to make a serious
contribution to the problem of land contamination.
I would like to confirm that the team has received confirmation that
their activities will transfer and that agreement has also been reached
to transfer pilot scale equipment. Consequently the important work of the
group will be continuing.
I can assure you that the majority of the contaminated land team at
Warren Spring have pulled together in an attempt to ensure that they continue
to provide a major contribution to the problem of contaminated ground.
The opinions of one ‘young researcher’ do not reflect those of the rest
of the team.
Peter Wood Warren Spring Laboratory
Letters: Day for night
Martin Moore-Ede addresses the problems of night shifting in control
rooms (‘We have ways of keeping you alert’, 13 November). There is a rather
simple technical solution which the author didn’t mention. The problem is
a worldwide one, and so is the solution. The people in a control room in
Europe during their day shift could watch over a production facility in
the Pacific region and vice versa. High-speed data links via satellite are
already a reality, so it shouldn’t matter if the control room is situated
200 metres or 20 000 kilometres from the place of action. A tower crew in
Tokyo could control the night traffic over Frankfurt airport. Why not let
them sleep at Chernobyl power station during the night and take care of
their job from Three Mile Island?
Heinrich Pesch Espoo, Finland
Letters: Day for night
It seems that industry has not learned from past experience. In the
Industrial Revolution period, any workers engaged in watching hazardous
processes had one legged stools to sit upon: this very effectively prevented
them from dozing off. Now suppose control room attendants in modern settings
had seats with a ball-joint at the base, with limited side movement, not
sufficient to throw the occupant to the floor, but enough to jolt them
into wakefulness?
Also, (in my early days) the older factories and offices had plenty
of draughts and workers often had to wear extra clothing for comfort. This
would have prevented a lot of drowsiness, as well as removing the likelihood
of contracting Legionnaires’ disease, etc. Perhaps advanced-thinking firms
could arrange for proper opening windows and a through breeze in their offices
– with possibly heated floors only?
Eric Turpin Lewes, East Sussex
Letters: Adonis knows
A recent experience in the Amazon rainforest may shed some light on
the rhythmic ‘breathing’ sound emitted by Michael Kenney’s wasps (Letters,
30 October). Our jungle guide, Adonis, treated us to his well-rehearsed
‘quick march’. This has the effect of producing the sound of approaching
bootfalls from a nearby wasps’ nest. This rhythmic crunching sound could
well be mistaken for the heavy breathing of a large animal through floorboards.
Adonis offered the explanation that this was the result of a symbiotic
relationship between wasps and ants inhabiting the same nest. When threatened
by a sudden noise the random oscillations of wasp thoraxes was orchestrated
to produce a warning signal which alerted the ants to the enemy without.
It was never made clear what was very symbiotic about all this. Maybe
the story was as tall as the one about the wild bees from which one sting
is fatal to an ordinary mortal, whilst Adonis was able to survive an attack
of hundreds.
Duncan and Jenny Parks North Pickenham, Norfolk
Letters: Keep burning
It has always seemed to me that the most overlooked aspect of used tyre
disposal is the loss of the extraordinary strength of tyres themselves,
a strength that derives from their exacting first-use function.
During the 1970s I carried out some research at Florida A&M University
in Tallahassee into the reuse in construction of various waste products
including motor tyres. In 1978/79 my students and I developed a number of
ways of using tyres in tension nets, to form structural walls, and as components
in wall and roof structures.
Similar work was being carried out at the same time in Taos, New Mexico,
where architect Michael Reynolds was already building and selling houses
using walls of earth-filled tyres. Interestingly, the alternative proposal
you describe, for using tyres to construct offshore reefs, was tried off
the town of Marathon in Florida in 1978. The reefs quickly broke up and
the component fragments of concrete and tyres did considerable damage to
coral and turtle grass inshore.
Because construction demand worldwide is, and must continue to be, insatiable;
because tyre strength is so high, and because the energy content of tyres
used in construction would still be conserved for alternative future uses,
the use of old tyres to build with still seems to me to be a fruitful line
of approach to the problem. As with most high-volume, short-life consumer
products, designed secondary use, rather than disposal or recycling (with
the concomitant input of yet more energy for transportation, shredding,
pyrolysis, etc.), must still be worthwhile.
Martin Pawley London
Letters: Pointless play
According to ‘Playtime for postgrads’ (13 November), more than 18 000
students have attended Science and Engineering Research Council weeks of
management games. The figures in the article indicate that this has cost
more than 拢8 million, of which over 拢6 million has come from
SERC’s own funds. Furthermore, on the modest assumption that postgraduates
work on average 40 hours a week, it has cost over 700 000 hours of research
time.
What benefits have accrued from this exercise? Apparently some students
have been asked questions about what they felt about the value of their
‘playtime’. Favourable responses were received from between 50 per cent
and 70 per cent of students. But why should people be able to determine
whether they have been affected by their week’s experience? They are likely
to think that they have been influenced when, in fact, they have not.
These ‘training courses’ need to be evaluated objectively. Do students
who have been on courses earn more, publish more or receive more industrial
or academic awards than similar students who wanted to go on the courses
but were randomly excluded from doing so?
John Patrick in his book Training: Research and Practice points out
that the lack of evaluation of management training is ‘rather surprising,
given the scrutiny which other forms of investment receive in organisations
and companies’. He attributes it to lack of political will arising from
the fact that ‘persons who are responsible for organising and developing
training lack any incentive to find out the extent to which a training programme
is effective, or put another way, ineffective’.
I suspect that the millions of pounds that SERC has spent on ‘playtime
for postgrads’ would have been better used to provide money for the many
alpha-rated project grant proposals that have remained unfunded.
Nigel Harvey University College London
Letters: Keep burning
The article ‘Scrap tyres: a burning issue’ (20 November), properly drew
attention to the question of how to dispose of scrap tyres. Tyre dumps are
indeed hazardous. When one catches fire it may burn for years. Of course,
that is a simple illustration of the heat value of tyres and the waste
which can occur when scrap tyres are not used for energy.
The article suggested the environmental groups object to projects that
produce energy from tyres being included in the government’s scheme which
supports electricity production from renewable energy. Greenpeace may well
‘condemn the inclusion of tyre incinerators in the scheme’ but there is
no reason to think that this is the view of environmental groups generally.
The article also made a comparison with coal-fired power production.
The Greenpeace assertion that ‘it would make more sense to dig up the coal
and bury the tyres’ is misleading. Coal will remain an important energy
source in a diversified British market, but fossil-fuelled energy is used
in cutting, preparing and transporting coal for use in power stations. Similarly,
shredding, transporting and then burying tyres in landfills also makes demands
on fossil-fuelled energy, but only to discard for ever the energy value
of the tyres.
The scheme which Elm Energy has pioneered is one of a number of emission-controlled
power-from-waste schemes being run successfully by companies in Britain.
Landfill gas, municipal waste, refuse and even chicken litter are used as
fuel for power generation. This solves environmental problems and increases
diversity in energy sources. Just as important, at a time of immense change
in the world’s electricity industries it means that British expertise is
an increasingly valuable commodity.
David Porter Association of Independent Electricity Producers London