Alan Curtis (author)

Last updated
Alan Curtis
Alan Curtis Head Shot1.jpg
Born
Lynn Alan Curtis

1943
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Education
OccupationAdvisor, author, social scientist, speaker
Known forFounding president and CEO of Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation
Spouse(s)Ying Wang (m. 1995)
ChildrenMiranda Curtis

Alan Curtis, also known as Lynn Alan Curtis, is an American social scientist, public policy advisor, author and speaker who is the founding president and CEO of the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation. The foundation was founded In 1981 the private sector continuation of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Curtis graduated from Pulaski High School in Milwaukee, then attended Harvard University, where he received a bachelor's degree. Curtis went to the University of London for a Masters of Economics, and later received a Ph.D. in Criminology and Urban Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. [3]

Career

While completing his Ph.D., Curtis was appointed as an assistant Crimes of Violence task force director on President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. [4] During the Administration of President Jimmy Carter, Curtis was executive director of the President's Urban and Regional Policy Group, [5] urban policy advisor to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, [6] and director of the Urban Initiatives Anti-Crime Program in public housing. [7] After leaving public office in 1981, Curtis was named founding president and CEO of the Eisenhower Foundation which identifies, funds, evaluates and builds evidence-based programs for disadvantaged American youth and families. [8]

During the 1990s, Curtis worked to bring American police chiefs to Japan to observe Japanese system of police neighborhood mini stations. [9] [10] He has also helped with the development and creation of the organization's Youth Safe Haven model. [11]

Curtis has also developed the Eisenhower Foundation Quantum Opportunities Program model adapted from an earlier Quantum Opportunities Program. [12] The program is aimed at high school students and offers tutoring, mentoring, life skills training and modest financial support. [13] It is designed to generate positive educational outcomes and decrease delinquent behavior including drug and substance abuse, gang activity and teen pregnancy. Participants in the evaluation of the program showed significantly higher grades, graduation rates, college admission rates and college retention rates than individuals in the control group. [14] [15] [16]

Curtis has authored or coauthored 25, 30, 40, and 50-year updates of the Kerner Commission and 15 and 30-year updates of the National Violence Commission. [17] [18] [19] The 50 year update of the Kerner commission is titled Healing Our Divided Society and proposes evidence-based policies on employment, education, housing, neighborhood development and criminal justice. [20]

Selected bibliography

Related Research Articles

The U.S. National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence was formed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in Executive Order 11412 on June 10, 1968, after the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the June 5 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

Kerner Commission

The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, was an 11-member Presidential Commission established by President Lyndon B. Johnson in Executive Order 11365 to investigate the causes of the long, hot summer of 1967 in the United States and to provide recommendations for the future.

The Violence Policy Center(VPC) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control.

American juvenile justice system

The American juvenile justice system is the primary system used to handle minors who are convicted of criminal offenses. The system is composed of a federal and many separate state, territorial, and local jurisdictions, with states and the federal government sharing sovereign police power under the common authority of the United States Constitution. The juvenile justice system intervenes in delinquent behavior through police, court, and correctional involvement, with the goal of rehabilitation. Youth and their guardians can face a variety of consequences including probation, community service, youth court, youth incarceration and alternative schooling. The juvenile justice system, similar to the adult system, operates from a belief that intervening early in delinquent behavior will deter adolescents from engaging in criminal behavior as adults.

Crime prevention is the attempt to reduce and deter crime and criminals. It is applied specifically to efforts made by governments to reduce crime, enforce the law, and maintain criminal justice.

United States Conference of Mayors Organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more

The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) is the official non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The cities are each represented by their mayors or other chief elected officials. The organization was founded in light of the Great Depression and was formed under Herbert Hoover until its original charter was signed at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, on the eve of the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Gun violence in the United States Overview of the topic

Gun violence in the United States results in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries annually. In 2018, the most recent year for which data are available as of 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Center for Health Statistics reports 38,390 deaths by firearm, of which 24,432 were by suicide and 13,958 were homicides. The rate of firearm deaths per 100,000 people rose from 10.3 per 100,000 in 1999 to 12 per 100,000 in 2017, with 109 people dying per day, being 11.9 per 100,000 in 2018. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicides, and 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. In 2010, 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm.

Title 42 of the United States Code is the United States Code dealing with public health, social welfare, and civil rights.

Created in 1981, the Eisenhower Foundation is the private sector continuation of two Presidential Commissions – the 1967-1968 bipartisan National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and the 1968-1969 bipartisan National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.

Youth incarceration in the United States

The United States incarcerates more of its youth than any other country in the world through the juvenile courts and the adult criminal justice system, which reflects the larger trends in incarceration practices in the United States. In 2010, approximately 70,800 juveniles were incarcerated in youth detention facilities alone. Approximately 500,000 youth are brought to detention centers in a given year. This data does not reflect juveniles tried as adults. Around 40% are incarcerated in privatized, for-profit facilities.

The Millennium Breach was sponsored by the Eisenhower Foundation to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Kerner Report on March 1, 1998. The Kerner Report was released by the Kerner Commission, a committee established by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to investigate the causes of the 1967 race riots in the United States and to provide recommendations for the future. The infamous passage of the Kerner Report found, "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—-separate and unequal."

Robert Woodson

Robert L. Woodson Sr. is an American civil rights activist, community development leader, author, and founder and president of the Woodson Center. The Woodson Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and demonstration organization that supports neighborhood-based initiatives to revitalize low-income communities.

Housing discrimination in the United States refers to the historical and current barriers, policies, and biases that prevent equitable access to housing. Housing discrimination became more pronounced after the abolition of slavery, typically as part of Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. The federal government began to take action against these laws in 1917, when the Supreme Court struck down ordinances prohibiting blacks from occupying or owning buildings in majority-white neighborhoods in Buchanan v. Warley. However, the federal government as well as local governments continued to be directly responsible for housing discrimination through redlining and race-restricted covenants until the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute

The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law, established in 2000 as the Institute for Global Legal Studies, serves as a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law.

Incarceration prevention in the United States

Incarceration prevention refers to a variety of methods aimed at reducing prison populations and costs while fostering enhanced social structures. Due to the nature of incarceration in the United States today caused by issues leading to increased incarceration rates, there are methods aimed at preventing the incarceration of at-risk populations.

Locked in the Poorhouse is a 30-year update of the final report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, co-authored by former Kerner Commissioner, Senator and Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation Chairman Fred R. Harris and Eisenhower Foundation President Alan Curtis. The book was released in 1998 with a companion volume, The Millennium Breach.

Robert J. Rubel

Robert J. Rubel also known as "Dr. Bob", is an American author and educational speaker. He specializes in the area of alternative sexuality, focusing on the fields of BDSM and TPE relationships and is an author of many books on the subject.

Thomas Abt American author (born 1972)

Thomas Abt is an American author, crime researcher, and former government official specializing in evidence-informed approaches to reducing crime in urban areas. His book, Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets, was published in June 2019 by Basic Books.

Community Crime Prevention relates to interventions designed to bring reform to the social conditions that influence, and encourage, offending in residential communities. Community crime prevention has a main focus on both the social and local institutions found within communities which can influence crime rates, specifically juvenile delinquency.

References

  1. Toner, Robin (July 14, 1985). "Can Crime be Curbed? The Ideas of 3 Experts". The New York Times.
  2. Lichtblau, Eric (December 6, 1999). "U.S. Crime Study Sees a Society in Trouble". The Los Angeles Times.
  3. "Grant Will Help Students Make Their Way to College". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 10 November 2010. Archived from the original on November 23, 2010.
  4. "Interview: Lynn Curtis, President, Eisenhower Foundation". Drug Reform Coordination Network. 10 December 1999.
  5. Consensus and Compromise: Creating the First National Urban Policy Under President Carter . Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. 2006. p. ix.
  6. Violent Crime Against the Elderly: a Briefing. Issues 95-146 of Serial, 95th Congress, United States Congress. United States Congress House Select Committee on Aging. 1978. p. 22.
  7. "Anticrime Program Will Be Broad in Scope". Developments in Criminal Justice Monthly. National League of Cities: 1. 9 July 1979.
  8. "School Safe Haven Program Offer Students Enrichment". The Toledo Blade. 24 February 2011.
  9. "Turning Around Lost Youth in Ravaged Areas". The Baltimore Sun. 23 February 1998.
  10. "D.C. Police Import Japanese Method". The Washington Post. 22 December 1994.
  11. "Youth Center Offers Haven, Hope". The Washington Post. 15 January 2003.
  12. "Eisenhower Quantum Opportunities Program". Blueprints Programs.
  13. "Eisenhower Quantum Opportunities". National Mentoring Resource Center.
  14. "Quantum Opportunities Program, Eisenhower Foundation". Childtrends.org. August 5, 2015.
  15. "Quantum Opportunities Program". Childtrends.org. November 5, 2010.
  16. "Program Profile: Eisenhower Quantum Opportunities". National Institute of Justice. September 8, 2015.
  17. Ostrow, ronald J. (February 28, 1993). "New Report Echoes 'Two Societies' Warning of 1968 Kerner Commission: Poverty: Eisenhower Foundation Says to Counter the Slide Toward a Divided Nation, Funds are Needed to Aid the Hard-Core Inner-City Poor". Los Angeles Times.
  18. Fletcher, Michael (March 1, 1998). "Prophecy on Race Relations Came True". The Washington Post.
  19. Brooke, Edward W. (April 3, 2008). "King and Kerner: An Unfinished Agenda". The Washington Post.
  20. "A Fiftieth Anniversary Look Back at the Kerner Report". Temple. Archived from the original on 2018-03-29. Retrieved 2018-03-19.