Second, support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and KUARFM 89.

Welcome back everyone and thanks for joining us.

The experts tell us we have to remain vigilant that preventive measures are as essential as ever.

Still, the news about COVID-19 in Arkansas has undeniably been encouraging.

Far more difficult to measure, however, is the psychological damage that many of our people are still suffering, and we'll have more on that in a moment.

First.

Whatever the factors, coronavirus or cultural upheaval, a sagging economy or easy access to guns.

Americans to include Arkansans set a record last year a record not to be envied.

Homicide nationwide rose by almost 30% in 2020.

But in Arkansas, the jump was higher up by more than 1/3.

With the death count well over 300 according to the FBI's annual accounting released only a few days ago.

And in our state, local reports suggest the first nine months of this year could make 2021 bloodier still.

If police can't always determine the relationship between victim and killers, some facts present themselves.

The victims are most likely to be in their 20s.

Many of them killed at a private home.

Handguns the most often used weapon.

What's at work here and what to do about it?

We're joined by two men whose work is the study of crime, including homicide.

Doctor David Tyler is a professor in the Criminal Justice Department at Ualr.

And a counterpart at UCA Conway doctor Matthew Moore, gentlemen, thank you very much for being with us.

Doctor Moore.

Let's begin with you.

I mean, we have all these factors.

We have economic turmoil, economic uncertainty, social cultural change, the George George Floyd matter, and on top of all of that, a COVID pandemic.

Watch the mixer.

These are these the primary driving factors do we know?

I would say that most criminologists would say we don't know exactly why crime goes up or down.

It's probably a mix of a number of factors.

However, we have to acknowledge that in the last couple of years we have had a very weird time.

If you will, with COVID and social upheaval.

I would say it's a combination of COVID access to guns.

We know the purchase of guns have increased in the last year.

Social unrest, and we've also had seen an undermining of a lot of our institutions.

We hear arguments about elections, arguments about the FBI, and these sorts of things, and that has eroded trust within the Community, and that probably is also played a role.

I 100% agree there isn't a singular cause to explain this prize that we're seeing what's particularly interesting about this is that it's nationwide.

It's across contexts we're seeing rise in violent crime in urban settings, rural settings, suburban settings.

Interestingly, not in other countries, and so this really seems to point to structural issues within the United States as the primary drivers of the rise that we're seeing to both of you and doctor Tyler, you just you just touched on it.

It's it's popular in some quarters of the public arena, the political arena to a trip to to point to Big City Urban America, Chicago in particular, but also New York, Los Angeles.

Saint Louis, Memphis and and they say well, wow, look at the homicide rates in those ten.

These latest reports anyway indicate that there is out in the countryside in exurban America in urban and rural America.

There's a spike there as well.

Yeah I would, I would say.

We always seem to look at urban areas.

However, if we even look at the past, there's always been rural areas that might have had higher crime than certain urban areas.

So I think there is a rise everywhere.

But we, as criminologists have had a tendency to view urban areas and study those more because there's more people.

And there is more crime in most urban areas.

So this is probably just a continuation of what we've seen in the past.

It's just everywhere is increased at the same rate, basically.

One of the things to keep in mind on the increase that we're seeing, though, is while the spike is significant, it is is so substantial from previous year a year to year comparison isn't always the best way to understand crime data in the larger context.

For instance, here in Little Rock we had, we had 49 murders in the over in 2020.

That's not even the most number of murders in a.

Here in the last five years, in 2017 there were 55, and so it's important for us to think about not just year to year spikes, but also more generally, where are we at?

We're still at a.

Substantially lower homicide rate in crime rates than we were 1015 years ago, so the variation that we're seeing is important for us to pick apart, but also important for us to keep the keep in context and not over over analyzer over attribute to and extrapolate out a new trend when really we're we're talking about.

Smaller changes in absolute numbers than the percentage change would really indicate to that end.

In fact, the FBI stats gentlemen indicate property crimes was off, but with the with the sole exception in the in the Crosstabs, the breakdown with the sole exception of auto theft property crimes were down by almost 10%.

Robbery.

Armed robbery was down, there was no change in the rape rate but and the aggravated assault, right?

We got lucky in this sense aggravated.

Assault was up 12% so.

It this is these are crimes of violence, as if I could share a quote with you that from a Duke professor there was no crime wave.

There was a tsunami of lethal violence.

Yeah, when I would echo what doctor Tyler said.

Even though homicide rates seemed to have spiked in the last year or two.

They're not as high as they've been at the peaks in the 80s and 90s, so we're still historically low compared to where we've been in the past.

So earlier when I said we have to acknowledge it's been kind of a weird last two or three years, there's a lot of things going on that probably if we get through them, this might be a blip.

It might be something that it's just a two or three year kind of upswing, and then we get back going down so it could be.

Again, the social unrest that we talked about COVID people lost their jobs, so maybe there's some stress there for people who didn't lose their jobs.

Maybe their kids.

Well, I had to come home from school.

So how do you work at home and watch your child?

There's lots of stress.

You know the social unrest, like we said with?

The movements again.

It might have something to do with that, and this might be a moment in time where we see these social movements and we see you know COVID, and so it might have something to do with that as opposed to a long term trend that we're seeing.

So I would argue that yes, we need to pay attention to it, but we shouldn't necessarily act like the sky is falling at this moment, because again, this might be a moment in time.

In the interim though, until we have a better grasp of what can be done.

To alleviate it, well, I would argue that if we're going to lower crime, we clearly have to have a long term plan and a short term plan in the short term.

What we could do is we need to kind of rebuild the Community and social trust within the Community.

A lot of things got closed down during COVID.

After school programs, boys and girls clubs.

These sorts of things.

These are institutions that if I'm a young person, for instance, I might not feel comfortable going to a police officer and saying, I think there might be some beef between these two people.

For instance.

However, as a young person, I might have felt comfortable going to a community leader that I trust, and that I know and that Community leader might be able to intervene.

Again, all these sorts of things got shut down, so as stuff starts reopening up, we might.

Again, get back to kind of the lowering of the rates.

Would be kind of what I would suspect might happen, but again, criminologists don't know exactly why things are going up or downward.

There's probably a combination of a lot of things, but I would argue that the recent trends might have something to do with COVID might have something to do with the social unrest that we saw in the last two or three years.

I think both of you would concur that this is a time in which law enforcement has been.

A profoundly politicized.

There are calls on some in some quarters for defund the police, but when I go out there and do some reporting, I what I find out is nobody wants to defund the police.

They may want a different kind of police, but and more of it doctor more yeah.

I think what defund the police.

Unfortunately it has a name that people just instantly think people want to get rid of police officers, and that's not necessarily what movement was saying.

What Doctor Tyler was saying whether there's been a scale back on social services and these sorts of things.

What we could do is in a situation where police officers we tend to call police officers for everything, regardless of if that they're needed or not.

Yeah, cabinetry, whatever it may be, it just seems to be our default, and so we put police offers a lot of time in strange positions where they're not necessarily qualified to be there, and it's not their fault.

It's not the community fault, it's just the way we've set up the system.

So what we could do, for instance, is we could have a situation where if somebody, for instance, has a mental illness, we can have somebody that's qualified show up and assist, whereas a police officer might not necessarily know how why that person is doing what they're doing and.

These sorts of things so that person might get arrested, for instance, when that might not be the best thing to do is put that person in a jail, right?

So we can look at alternatives to just using the police for getting cats out of trees, and these sorts of things like we've talked about.

I would agree there's police are tasked with playing a lot of different roles in society and there are a lot of reasons to wonder why we rely on an armed police force to respond to a call for an emotional for emotional distress, or a cat cottontree.

There are the police have tended to become just kind of a catch all for we want government to respond.

Do something and we don't know who to call so the police get sent.

But if there were other services whether it was in expanding 9112, include just a two to include social work and crisis response teams or shifting some of the some of the non law enforcement responsibilities to fire departments or other emergency services or non emergency services.

Narrowing the rule is.

Really what the defund police movement is talking about and empowering police to do the things that they are meant to do and also help to kind of shift away some of the responsibilities that have just kind of been left to them because as a society we have started we have decided not to fund mental host in the United States.

We've decided not to fund and provides crisis intervention and we've not done what we need to do to reduce.

Homelessness and poverty and social and economic inequality.

All of these factors that are that are going to lead to crime, but the police are not equipped to actually address the underlying issues.

They're just there to arrest and move forward.

So we're not actually getting it through.

Gentlemen, we thank you both for being with us.

Got ended there because we're simply out of time.

Come back soon.

Doctor Tyler doctor Moore.

Thank you very much for being with us.

Thank you now we'll be right back.

We are back.

We may not like it higher consumer prices including motor fuels and some shortages of retail goods and personnel.

But those are signs of economic recovery.

We turn now to recovery of a different kind or the need of it for almost two years.

We've struggled.

Against the burdens imposed by the coronavirus that has sickened hundreds of thousands of us and claimed more than 7000 Arkansas lives.

It's destroyed.

Some businesses and damaged at least as many others any or all of that is called sufficient to jeopardize our emotional health.

Some thoughts now for those struggling psychologically, particularly the youngest of us and their families were joined by Doctor Glenn Meysman, clinical psychologist of the University of Arkansas at Medical Sciences.

Dr Thanks very much for coming in.

Thanks for your time.

Are you seeing an uptick and could that be related to what extent to the pandemic?

Yeah, I think it's a really good question to be asking, are we seeing more kids with some mental health concerns so emotional and behavioral disorders or symptoms or conditions and what we have in the past.

And we definitely know from kind of national wide surveys that this is impacting children adolescents to a large degree.

A recent survey that I came across more than 25% of adolescents reported worsening mental health symptoms since the start of pandemic, and also caregivers and parents of school age kids.

So kind of kids ages 6 to 12.

More than 20% of them also reported worsening mental health symptoms in children as well, and I think we're we're seeing some of those same statistics being mirrored in the clinics in which I work.

And when I talk with my colleagues as well, we're just seeing some new and different types of challenges and just increase in the frequency, severity, and intensity of some of the mental health concerns in children adolescents.

Can you be specific doctor?

What, in terms of the disorders or the MALETIS, or the conditions that you're seeing most commonly in in younger patients?

Yeah, so when we're talking about really young kids, let's say kids underneath the age of 6, so maybe preschoolers sometimes what we see is an increase in anxiety, but particularly more separation anxiety.

Young kids feel more safe and secure when they're with their primary kind of attachment figure, whether that's a caregiver or parent or whoever is in the primary caregiving role.

And they feel most safe and secure with it.

So when they have to be separated from them, either going to daycare or their caregiver or parent going off too.

Work or some other place.

Sometimes we see more anxiety and with young kids anxiety can look more like behavioral concerns like tantrums.

So young kids we're definitely seeing more separation anxiety, school age, kids and adolescents.

We're seeing more anxiety, kind of about their health and well being.

Am I going to get sick?

Is my family member going to get sick?

What about teachers, grandparents, loved ones?

So they're worried about?

Kind of more of their health and safety and health related anxiety?

We're seeing an increase of, so we're definitely seeing kind of increase anxiety.

All across the board, we're also seeing some increased rates of depression as well, so kids that are feeling just kind of sad and down and also many of the kids now are frequently.

It's particularly at the beginning of the pandemic, more socially isolated and social isolation can definitely be a risk factor for increasing depression as well.

So sometimes kids that used to enjoy doing things.

Maybe a teenager that used to really enjoy playing a musical instrument, but now for whatever reason just doesn't really like playing the guitar and they're just feeling kind of more depressed.

And as the pandemic goes on, we often get this feeling of kind of how long is this going to happen?

How long is this going to go on?

What's the long term impact going to be?

So definitely we see some depressive symptoms as well.

And unfortunately for our youngest population we are seeing increased rates of child maltreatment, so this has been a really really stressful experience for many people, and unfortunately we are seeing increased rates of child abuse happening and also children that are being exposed to kind of arguing and fighting and domestic violence in the home as well.

So this is a hard stressful experience for everyone, but particularly for children, and it has been impacting their mental health in a.

Variety of ways, particularly related to anxiety, depression and also increase rates of trauma, particularly child maltreatment.

Well, I want to go to that in just a second, but first we have more and more youngsters are now back in in the classroom situation.

But the pandemic robbed them of much of their socialization in the previous year in in 2020.

And even those who argued the most strenuously doctor for a shutdown of public schools.

Acknowledged that the youngsters were going to miss that socialization factor.

Can you detect that in the patients that you are seeing and is that?

Is that a profound concern to you?

Well, I think socialization is something that is really important.

The American Academy of Pediatrics did recommend that kids go back to school in person rather than more virtual or remote learning.

That was a recommendation over the summer.

There is something different about learning in school in a more of a public setting, or whether this is a private school or public school or a church run school.

But just being in an environment when you're around other kids, I think is really important as well.

Not every all kids learn the same way.

Sometimes more really well or virtual learning can be post particular challenges for kids, particularly those I have some learning concerns, but a lot of people do you find it's helpful to be the peer interactions.

The socialization.

A lot of that is missed out with kind of the virtual and remote learning.

And of course there's many different ways that people can learn.

But that is one kind of drawback with remote and virtual learning is that there's just so much peer interaction or socialization and just developing this friendships.

Yeah, it was a human contact.

If they were concerned about.

As at least as much as their academic progress, it was their emotional evolution or development.

Yeah, definitely.

So like I think before when people are socially isolated when they are have to be forced to be withdrawn from other people.

That can be really, really challenging for individuals, particularly those that are more kind of extroverted or social and justice really enjoy being around other people.

That can be really hard and social isolation as I was mentioning before is a risk factor for the development of more.

Some mental health concerns.

Human beings are social creatures.

We are used to being around.

Other people and of course some people feel more kind of inclined to be more introverted and more by themselves, but social isolation is really when you want to be around other people, but you can't, and you're really kind of forced to be by yourselves and that social isolation.

It's just hard because you don't have anyone to talk to.

You engage with kids, don't have people to play with.

It was also like a lot of missed coping that happens when you're talking to a friend.

They can help you think through how you're feeling or what's going on, and you're missing out on that.

If you're by yourself, you're missing out on some really good coping from the peers that your width as well, in addition to just playing and engaging in the kind of peer related play, another developmentally appropriate peer activities to the more sinister aspect which you mentioned it.

Not just in clinical practitioners, but criminal justice.

Representatives have expressed concern about the increase in child abuse child Miss Maltreatment.

Is the economic uncertainty the stress of the pandemic?

Is that affect how big a factor is that?

Yeah, so this has been unprecedented times for the last 18 months worldwide and this is something that is to me, is such a unique and different time that we're living in that we are seeing stressors happening for everyone.

But I do think it's important to remember.

And I heard this phrase from a colleague not too long ago, so we're all in the same storm.

Guess we are all in this pandemic, but we're not all in the same boat.

There are particular people.

Populations that are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic, so this is stressful for everyone, but it's even more stressful and difficult and challenging for particular subsets of the populations.

So in with those populations.

This has been extremely hard because for different people they've lost jobs they had not been able to work from home, so they've been in environments where they're more likely to be exposed COVID to COVID than other working for us, and we see kids that are being raised in more of a impoverished environment.

They're living environment where they don't have as much access to the.

I'm in two care, particularly specialty care, when they're looking for kind of child mental health services, so we're seeing that there is impacts to everyone, but it's really stressful in hard and as I was mentioning earlier, this is hard for families that are already impoverished, or they're already at risk for some challenges or difficulty.

Now we're adding a pandemic on top of it.

That's why we're seeing this increase rates of like child abuse and child maltreatment, and also arguing, fighting and domestic violence in the home families.

Also, they're just together.

A lot more so that can be a positive, but also for families that have already challenging relationships or really difficult relationships like spending more time together actually increases the rates in which arguing and fighting and violence can actually occur.

So being stuck together at home can be very positive if you're from in family that has positive and strong relationships with each other, but it's actually kind of a negative and a risk factor for those that where there's already violence in hard or challenging things happening in the home.

Being together more actually just increases the risk of abuse or neglect.

Are violence to occur.

The nature of your practice?

Your which, largely a pediatric practice, requires that you treat not only the youngster but the entire family.

Now that has to be especially difficult in times such as these.

Yeah, definitely working with parents and caregivers is essential to any type of work.

When working with children.

Adolescents, particularly the younger the child, the more that you work with parents and caregivers.

So once again, the child is stressed, the parent is stressed.

The therapist also is stressed as well.

We're all feeling stressed, but really the goal of the therapists in my clinical practice is to help the child but also help the caregivers and parents support the child.

The child having the strong.

Warm, loving relationship with their caregiver actually buffers the negative effects from stressful experiences or traumatic events, so we want to develop that relationship to be strong as possible between the child and his or her caregiver and also supporting the caregiver and making sure that their needs are being addressed as well.

So I work with the child and adolescent, but many of the parents also have mental health concerns, so it's making sure that there's appropriate referrals to different clinics for them so that they can get their own mental health.

Needs met as well, but really we want to support the caregivers because they are the most important person in the life of their children.

So we want to make sure that they are feeling supported and encouraged, and it's their rightful place to help their child and their child's mental health symptoms as well.

And helping them on recovery.

We have about a minute remaining.

Doctor and I wanted to ask how iaccessible is.

Is that sort of care in Arkansas?

How available is it?

Yeah, so something got kind of uniquely sprang up because of the pandemic.

Is availability of Tele health resources and Tele health services.

So we there wasn't as common before the pandemic, but I think once the pandemic started a lot of clinics and hospitals have transitioned to Tele health services, so there aren't increasingly available Tele health services through UAMS and other clinics and hospitals, which is fantastic.

However, there's some drawbacks to Tele health services as well.

Not everyone always has the same access to technology, but there is an increase in that I got to end it there doctor, because we were simply out of time and we thank you very much for yours.

Come back soon.

That's it for us this week.

Thanks for joining us.

As always, we'll see you next week.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and KAR FM 89.