Zócalo Public Square

What Does the Life of Frederick Douglass Tell Us About America?

Americans treat crime as a public scourge. And we attack it via public systems—our prisons, probation departments, and school and youth programs—to intervene before people go wrong. But what if crime isn’t a public problem, but rather an intensely private issue tied to families? Just five percent of American families account for half of all crimes, and 10 percent of families account for two-thirds. And new research suggests crime is a family tradition passed on through multiple generations, even to great-grandchildren. Why does crime run in families? How can we help, treat, or punish families to break their cycles of crime? And what should this reality of crime mean for efforts to reform incarceration and law enforcement in the United States, home to one-quarter of the world’s prison population? Former New York Times national and foreign correspondent Fox Butterfield, author of In My Father's House: A New View of How Crime Runs in the Family, visited Zócalo to explain how crime really works and to explore the

What Would Immigration Reform Mean for Chicago?

Reporting From Mexico’s Drug Wars

What Would Immigration Reform Mean for Houston?

An Evening With Debbie Allen

Can Popular Music Still Change Culture?

Is Economic Austerity Good For Us?

What Would Immigration Reform Mean for Miami?

Live Mayoral Debate Moderated by KCRW’s Warren Olney

What Would Immigration Reform Mean for Los Angeles?

How Are The Wars Changing Medicine?

How Do Wars Affect Families?

Is Our Marriage With Mexico Working?

Would Better Leaders Fix Our Problems?

Do Architects Really Shape Cities?

How Do People Re-Invent Spaces?

Who Designs Tomorrow’s Los Angeles?

Should Power Be More Concentrated?

As much as social scientists have learned about what drives people’s decision-making, we still haven’t found a silver bullet for changing people’s behavior. Yet at a panel co-presented by UCLA at MOCA Grand Avenue and moderated by The Atlantic contributing editor David H. Freedman, L.A. County Director of Public Health Jonathan Fielding, University of Minnesota social psychologist Traci Mann, and UCLA health economist Frederick J. Zimmerman agreed that it is possible to get people to make better health choices—if you give them time, and you engage them on several fronts.