Creation of a sustainable society ideally should include promotion of an enhanced overall quality of life, including freedom from crime, violence, and other key indicators of social stress. This study is part of a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the results of a prospective four-year quasi-experiment that sought to reduce rates of homicide and violent crime as well as to improve other measures of the quality of life and public health in the United States. The current research tests the hypothesis that group practice of the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) and TM-Sidhi® program by a group of theoretically predicted size would be sufficient to reduce collective stress in the larger population, as reflected in decreased rates of homicide in a sample of 206 large U.S. urban areas. Time series regression analysis of monthly data for 2002–2010 using a broken-trend intervention model found significant reductions in trend for the urban homicide rate during the 2007–2010 intervention period (p = 1 x 10–13). Controlling for pre-intervention trends, seasonality, and autocorrelation, the estimated total reduction in homicide rate was 28.4% (7.1% annually). The practical significance of these findings is also indicated by an estimated 4,136 murders averted by the reduced trend in murder rate during the intervention. Diagnostic tests are satisfactory and indicate that the results are unlikely due to “spurious regression.” The mechanism for these macro-social effects is discussed in the light of possible alternative hypotheses.
| Published in |
Journal of Health and Environmental Research (Volume 3, Issue 3-1)
This article belongs to the Special Issue Maharishi Vedic Science: Creating a Sustainable Future |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13 |
| Page(s) | 32-43 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Quality of Life, Crime Prevention, Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program, Urban Murder Statistics, Intervention Analysis, Quasi-Experiment
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APA Style
Kenneth L. Cavanaugh, Michael C. Dillbeck. (2017). Field Effects of Consciousness and Reduction in U.S. Urban Murder Rates: Evaluation of a Prospective Quasi-Experiment. Journal of Health and Environmental Research, 3(3-1), 32-43. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13
ACS Style
Kenneth L. Cavanaugh; Michael C. Dillbeck. Field Effects of Consciousness and Reduction in U.S. Urban Murder Rates: Evaluation of a Prospective Quasi-Experiment. J. Health Environ. Res. 2017, 3(3-1), 32-43. doi: 10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13
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Download@article{10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13,
author = {Kenneth L. Cavanaugh and Michael C. Dillbeck},
title = {Field Effects of Consciousness and Reduction in U.S. Urban Murder Rates: Evaluation of a Prospective Quasi-Experiment},
journal = {Journal of Health and Environmental Research},
volume = {3},
number = {3-1},
pages = {32-43},
doi = {10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jher.s.2017030301.13},
abstract = {Creation of a sustainable society ideally should include promotion of an enhanced overall quality of life, including freedom from crime, violence, and other key indicators of social stress. This study is part of a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the results of a prospective four-year quasi-experiment that sought to reduce rates of homicide and violent crime as well as to improve other measures of the quality of life and public health in the United States. The current research tests the hypothesis that group practice of the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) and TM-Sidhi® program by a group of theoretically predicted size would be sufficient to reduce collective stress in the larger population, as reflected in decreased rates of homicide in a sample of 206 large U.S. urban areas. Time series regression analysis of monthly data for 2002–2010 using a broken-trend intervention model found significant reductions in trend for the urban homicide rate during the 2007–2010 intervention period (p = 1 x 10–13). Controlling for pre-intervention trends, seasonality, and autocorrelation, the estimated total reduction in homicide rate was 28.4% (7.1% annually). The practical significance of these findings is also indicated by an estimated 4,136 murders averted by the reduced trend in murder rate during the intervention. Diagnostic tests are satisfactory and indicate that the results are unlikely due to “spurious regression.” The mechanism for these macro-social effects is discussed in the light of possible alternative hypotheses.},
year = {2017}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Field Effects of Consciousness and Reduction in U.S. Urban Murder Rates: Evaluation of a Prospective Quasi-Experiment AU - Kenneth L. Cavanaugh AU - Michael C. Dillbeck Y1 - 2017/03/20 PY - 2017 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13 DO - 10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13 T2 - Journal of Health and Environmental Research JF - Journal of Health and Environmental Research JO - Journal of Health and Environmental Research SP - 32 EP - 43 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2472-3592 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13 AB - Creation of a sustainable society ideally should include promotion of an enhanced overall quality of life, including freedom from crime, violence, and other key indicators of social stress. This study is part of a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the results of a prospective four-year quasi-experiment that sought to reduce rates of homicide and violent crime as well as to improve other measures of the quality of life and public health in the United States. The current research tests the hypothesis that group practice of the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) and TM-Sidhi® program by a group of theoretically predicted size would be sufficient to reduce collective stress in the larger population, as reflected in decreased rates of homicide in a sample of 206 large U.S. urban areas. Time series regression analysis of monthly data for 2002–2010 using a broken-trend intervention model found significant reductions in trend for the urban homicide rate during the 2007–2010 intervention period (p = 1 x 10–13). Controlling for pre-intervention trends, seasonality, and autocorrelation, the estimated total reduction in homicide rate was 28.4% (7.1% annually). The practical significance of these findings is also indicated by an estimated 4,136 murders averted by the reduced trend in murder rate during the intervention. Diagnostic tests are satisfactory and indicate that the results are unlikely due to “spurious regression.” The mechanism for these macro-social effects is discussed in the light of possible alternative hypotheses. VL - 3 IS - 3-1 ER -
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