To solve the problem of crime, we first have to address the root cause: human sin.

Though many sociologists of the 19th and early 20th centuries attributed crime to environmental factors like poverty, an inadequate criminal justice system, and racism, landmark studies in the last 30 years have shown that crime is really about wrong moral decisions. For example, in their 17-year-long study The Criminal ...

During 2009's World Population Day (an annual event, observed on July 11, that seeks to raise awareness of global population issues), Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad promoted an unusual idea for dealing with overpopulation in India. He suggested a new policy that would allow most of the poor in rural India to have access to television. According to his vision, "amorous couples would watch ...

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This impulse can be hard to quantify, mainly because thinking about it makes us uncomfortable. But it's pictured well in a disturbing practice currently employed by the Nigerian judicial system in western Africa.

The country of Niger has an established police and criminal justice system—one of the remnants of its days as a French colony. There are Nigerian police officers and judges, as well ...

Have you ever gotten yourself in big trouble—really, really big trouble? So big you can't even conceive of how much trouble you're in? That's what 31-year-old Jerome Kerviel is accused of. Jerome worked for a prestigious bank in France. He had worked his way up from the back room to being one of the men who did the bank's investing. In January 2008 he was caught allegedly committing investment ...

After years of street violence, drug use, and thievery, Fernando "Fernie" Aranda was sent to prison to a serve a 25-years-to-life sentence. But prison didn't change Fernie. His life behind bars matched the life he had lived on the streets. At one point he was even a suspect in the deaths of three fellow inmates. But Fernie's defiance ended when his 70-year-old mother came to visit him in prison. She ...

According to economist Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, being part of a community where others know us does influence behavior. The proof is in Paul Feldman's bagel business. Feldman delivers bagels to companies and allows individuals to pay on the honor system. Over the years, Feldman has kept meticulous records. Among the lessons learned, Levitt points out that smaller offices are more honest ...

At 15, Raymond Germany didn't heed his mother [Debra's] pleas to leave the "thug life." He became a successful drug dealer, sometimes making $1,000 a day. Then, in July 2001, his career in crime ended abruptly. Shot in the back of his head, he died alone on an empty staircase in a housing project. He was 23.

At first Debra could only cry. Then she became a mother on a Christian mission.

In March 2002, ...

Justin John Boudin, a 27-year-old man from Minnesota, pleaded guilty to fifth-degree assault charges for violently losing his temper. Here's the irony: he was on his way to anger management class when he committed the crime.

According to the criminal complaint, Boudin was waiting at a bus stop when he started to harass a 59-year-old woman. Witnesses say he yelled at her over what he felt was a general ...

On Tuesday, August 27, 1996, Shawn Hagwood began a journey of learning that would turn his life around. Earlier that week, 19-year-old Shawn made a cross-country trip to visit a friend in Rochester, Minnesota, a quiet, conservative community known for the famous Mayo Clinic. One night, he and his friend accompanied a group of local guys to an apartment complex inhabited mostly by Somalian residents. ...

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Vinny says he is not a preacher. He is a self-described "working stiff from Independence, Missouri." But Vinny hopes that he can help end the murders and crime—"the kind of bloody violence that he saw as a kid and that is consuming Kansas City's east side." He believes that "if people come to know Christ in a personal way, they not only won't want to commit any violence, they're not going ...