Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Music as Crime-Prevention Tool?

From Australia: "Elevator-style music, including artists such as Barry Manilow and Barry White, would be played in crime riddled laneways, under a proposal from Adelaide city councillor Anne Moran to reduce crime." Read the whole story here.

This actually worked in Dallas too, as the notoriously gang-infested downtown McDonald's on Commerce St. experienced a notable dropoff in crime after they started pumping Mozart and Beethoven through the outdoor speakers. I guess that if you can use some music to soothe the savage beast, you can use other kinds to repel said beast.

Speaking of crimefighters, I'm off to see Spidey tonight after I'm done teaching. Should be great...

(UPDATE: I was curious as to what a "laneway" was, so I asked someone who actually lives in Australia. It turns out that it's basically our equivalent of a narrow, poorly-lit, rubbish-strewn alley. Thanks to James of the Daily Prawn for the info.)

1 comment:

James said...

No problem :D Glad I can be of some use! And that's Adelaide too... we generally consider that as kinda like the weird city of Australia... lol