经济学人277:贫困、犯罪与教育 贫民窟的悖论

 　　Poverty, crime and education

　　贫困、犯罪与教育

　　The paradox¹ of the ghetto²

　　贫民窟的悖论

　　Unnervingly, poor children seem to fare better in poor neighbourhoods

　　令人奇怪的是，穷人家的孩子若是生活在贫困区域，表现反而更好。

　　THE poorest people in Leicester by a wide margin³ are the Somalis who live in the St Matthews housing estate. Refugees from civil war, who often passed through Sweden or the Netherlands before fetching up in the English Midlands, they endure peeling surroundings and appalling⁴ joblessness. At the last census⁵ the local unemployment rate was three times the national average. But Abdikayf Farah, who runs a local charity, is oddly upbeat. Just look at the children, he says.

　　生活在Leicester郊区最穷的人是索马里人，他们生活在St Matthews住宅区。在他们来到英国中部之前，作为内战的难民，索马里人经常穿越瑞典或者荷兰。他们忍受环境的盘剥，因没有工作而担惊受怕。在最近的人口普查中，当地的失业率是不列颠全国平均水平的三倍。但在当地从事慈善事业的Abdikayf Farah却莫名的乐观。他说，看看那些孩子就明白我为什么乐观了。

　　英国贫困家庭的艰难生活 可可英语.jpg

　　Close to Mr Farah's office is Taylor Road Primary School—which, it turns out, trumps⁶ almost every school in Leicester in standardised tests. Its headmaster, Chris Hassall, credits the Somali immigrants, who insist that their children turn up for extra lessons at weekends and harry⁷ him when they seem to fall behind. Education is their ticket out of poverty. Poor district, wonderful school, well-ordered children: in Britain, the combination is not as unusual as one might suppose.

　　紧挨着Farah办公室的是泰勒路小学——这个小学在Leicester地区的标准化测验中的成绩优于本地区绝大多数学校。该校校长Chris Hassall赞叹道，Somali的移民，坚持让他们的孩子在周末补课，而当孩子们的成绩落后的时候，就敦促校长严格要求。教育是他们摆脱贫困的通行证。贫困的街区、完美的学校、秩序井然的孩子们：在不列颠，如此的组合并不是人们通常想的那么稀奇。

　　Britain has prized the ideal of economically mixed neighbourhoods since the 19th century. Poverty and disadvantage are intensified⁸ when poor people cluster, runs the argument; conversely, the rich are unfairly helped when they are surrounded by other rich people. Social mixing ought to help the poor. It sounds self-evident—and colours planning regulations that ensure much social and affordable⁹ housing is dotted among more expensive private homes. Yet “there is absolutely no serious evidence to support this,” says Paul Cheshire, a professor of economic geography at the London School of Economics (LSE).

　　自19世纪以来，不列颠的人们就赞同这样一种理念：不同经济水平的人比邻而居。当穷人聚居起来时，贫穷和种种不便的问题也随之集聚，这引发争论；相应的，富人的邻居都是富人的时候，富人也会得到偏袒。不同阶层混居当能帮助穷人。这个想法听上去是自洽的——并且也影响了管理规则的制定。这些规定使得社交更为便利、价格更为合适的公寓布局在更为昂贵的私人住宅中。然而“绝对没有过硬的证据表明这个看法是对的”，伦敦经济学院的经济地理学教授Paul Cheshire如是说。

　　And there is new evidence to suggest it is wrong. Researchers at Duke University in America followed over 1,600 children from age five to age 12 in England and Wales. They found that poor boys living in largely well-to-do neighbourhoods were the most likely to engage in anti-social behaviour, from lying and swearing to such petty misdemeanours as fighting, shoplifting and vandalism, according to a commonly used measure of problem behaviour. Misbehaviour starts very young (see chart 1) and intensifies¹⁰ as they grow older. Poor boys in the poorest neighbourhoods were the least likely to run into trouble. For rich kids, the opposite is true: those living in poor areas are more likely to misbehave.

　　并且有新的证据表明这个观点是错误的。美国杜克大学的研究者追踪了研究英格兰和威尔士超过1600名儿童，从5岁一直观察到12岁。他们发现穷人家的男孩如果生活在生活裕如的邻居边上，很容易进行反社会行为，从说谎、辱骂这样的小过失到诸如打架、偷窃商品和恣意毁坏公共物品的行为。其行为评定的依据是根据常用的问题行为判断标准。这些孩子的行为不端问题起源很早，而在他们长大之后这些问题出现频繁。生活在周遭最贫困环境的男孩最不可能陷入麻烦。对于富家子弟，结论是反过来的：生活在贫穷区域的那些更容易行为不端。

　　The researchers suggest several reasons for this. Poorer areas are often heavily policed, deterring¹¹ would-be miscreants¹²; it may be that people in wealthy places are less likely to spot misbehaviour, too. Living alongside the rich may also make the poor more keenly aware of their own deprivation¹³, suggests Tim Newburn, a criminologist who is also at the LSE. That, in turn, increases the feelings of alienation¹⁴ that are associated with anti-social conduct and criminal behaviour.

　　研究者们提出了如下的原因解释这一现象。较为贫穷的区域是警方重点布控的地方，这阻止了孩子们成为恶棍；也可能生活在高档区域的人们较少检举不端行为。伦敦经济学院的犯罪学家Tim Newburn认为，生活在富人旁边也可能会让穷人感觉到自己是被剥夺了。于是，穷人们那种被遗弃的感觉越发强烈，最终导致反社会行为和犯罪行为。

　　Research on England's schools turns up a slightly different pattern. Children entitled to free school meals—a proxy¹⁵ for poverty—do best in schools containing very few other poor children, perhaps because teachers can give them plenty of attention. But, revealingly, poor children also fare unusually well in schools where there are a huge number of other poor children. That may be because schools have no choice but to focus on them. Thus in Tower Hamlets, a deprived east London borough¹⁶, 60% of poor pupils got five good GCSEs (the exams taken at 16) in 2013; the national average was 38%. Worst served are pupils who fall in between, attending schools where they are insufficiently¹⁷ numerous to merit attention but too many to succeed alone (see chart 2).

　　对于英格兰学校的研究却有一些不同的情形。有资格接受学校免费午餐—贫困的标志之一 的学生在学校里（没有其他贫困学生）表现最好。这是因为老师可以给予他们足够的关注。不过，也有发现表明，在全是贫困学生的学校里，穷人家孩子的表现也是出奇得好。这也许是因为学校别无他法，只能把关注点都集中在他们身上。在东伦敦一个贫瘠的自治区，Tower Hamlets，60%的穷学生在2013年的GCSE测验（16岁开始测验）中得到5的好等级，全国平均水平是38%。表现最差的是不算很贫穷但又不是很富裕人家的孩子，在所就读的学校，他们的人数没有多到可以得到关注，但想要出人头地他们的人数又太多了。

　　Mr Cheshire reckons that America, too, provides evidence of the limited benefits of social mixing. Look, he says, at the Moving to Opportunity programme, started in the 1990s, through which some poor people received both counselling and vouchers¹⁸ to move to richer neighbourhoods. Others got financial help to move as they wished, but no counselling. A third group received nothing. Studies after 10-15 years suggested that the incomes and employment prospects¹⁹ of those who moved to richer areas had not improved. Boys who moved showed worse behaviour and were more likely to be arrested for property crime.

　　Cheshire认为，美国也有证据表明混合社会的局限性。他认为，在始于20世纪90年代的“奔向机遇”的项目中，通过这个项目，一些穷人在搬去与富人为邻之前接受了咨询和金融券。一些人正如期待的那样得到了金融帮助，但是没有接受咨询。第三组什么也没获得。经过10年到15年之后，研究表明，收益和就业都得以保障的那些人并没有任何提升。搬过去的男孩子表现出更严重的行为问题，并且更可能因为金钱犯罪而被逮捕。

　　In Britain, this pattern might be partly explained by the existence of poor immigrant neighbourhoods such as St Matthews in Leicester. The people who live in such ghettos are poor in means, because they cannot speak English and lack the kind of social networks that lead to jobs, but not poor in aspiration²⁰. They channel their ambitions through their children.

　　在不列颠，这种现象可以得到部分证实。诸如住在Leicester St Matthews区的贫困移民的存在就可以证实这点。生活在这些地区的人们平均生活水平属于贫困状态，因为他们不会说英语，也缺乏那些可以提供工作的社会关系网络，不过他们不乏进取的勇气。他们把自己的进取之心传递给了自己的孩子。

　　Another probable explanation lies in the way that the British government hands out money. Education funding is doled²¹ out centrally, and children in the most indigent²² parts tend to get the most cash. Schools in Tower Hamlets receive 7,014 ($10,610) a year for each child, for example, compared with the English average of 4,675. Secondary schools also get 935 for each poor child thanks to the “pupil premium” introduced by the coalition²³ government. Meanwhile Teach First sends top graduates into poor schools. In America, by contrast, much school funding comes from local property taxes, so those in impoverished²⁴ areas lose out.

　　另外一个可能的解释跟不列颠政府的资金流向有关。教育基金的支出是集约式的，最需要援助的孩子会得到最多的资金。Tower Hamlets的学校每个孩子每年可以获得7014英镑。而英格兰平均水平是4675英镑。由于联合政府的“小学生奖金”，中学的贫困学生每位也会得到935英镑。与此同时，“优先教学”项目将优秀毕业生送入贫困地区的中学。与此相比较的是，在美国，多数学校基金来自当地财政，这样的话那些欠发达地区的学校就被忽视了。

　　As the Duke University researchers are keen to point out, all this does not in itself prove that economically mixed neighbourhoods are a bad thing. They may be good in other ways—making politicians more moderate, for example. But the research does suggest that the benefits of such districts are far from straightforward²⁵. Patterns of social segregation²⁶ reflect broader social inequality, argues Mr Cheshire, who has written a book about urban economics and policy. Where mixed neighbourhoods flourish, house prices rise, overwhelmingly benefiting the rich. Spending more money on schools in deprived areas and dispatching the best teachers there would do more to help poor children. Assuming that a life among wealthy neighbours will improve their lot is too complacent²⁷.

　　杜克大学研究者尖锐地指出，所有这些并不能证明，经济混合社区就是个坏东西。他们也许会在其他方面有益—比如让政客们更为中和。不过这些发现这些区域的益处表现得并不明朗。社会分离的模式反映了更严重的社会不平等，Cheshire争论道（他写过一本关于城市的经济与政策的书）。当混合社区繁荣起来后，房价上涨，获益的毫无疑问是富人。在贫瘠地区投入更多资金，并将最好的教师分配过去会更好的帮助孩子们。生活在富人中能极大改善穷人家孩子们状况的想法，显然是过于想当然了。

1 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

2 ghetto   

n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区

参考例句：

• Racism and crime still flourish in the ghetto.城市贫民区的种族主义和犯罪仍然十分猖獗。
• I saw that achievement as a possible pattern for the entire ghetto.我把获得的成就看作整个黑人区可以仿效的榜样。

3 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

4 appalling   

adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions.恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• Nothing can extenuate such appalling behaviour.这种骇人听闻的行径罪无可恕。

5 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

6 trumps   

abbr.trumpets 喇叭；小号；喇叭形状的东西；喇叭筒v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去式 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造

参考例句：

• On the day of the match the team turned up trumps. 比赛那天该队出乎意料地获得胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Every time John is late getting home he trumps up some new excuse. 每次约翰晚回家都会编造个新借口。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

8 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

10 intensifies   

n.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的名词复数 )v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A clear atmosphere intensifies the blue of the sky. 纯净的空气使天空变得更蓝。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Blowing on fire intensifies the heat. 吹火使热度加强。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 deterring   

v.阻止，制止( deter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• However, investors say are a number of issues deterring business. 然而，投资者表示，有很多问题让他们却步。 来自互联网
• It's an effective way of deterring potential does online, the logic goes. 逻辑上这是抑制潜在线上威胁的有效方法。 来自互联网

12 miscreants   

n.恶棍，歹徒( miscreant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I ordered the miscreants to let me out. 我命令这些土匪放我出去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Local people demanded that the District Magistrate apprehend the miscreants. 当地人要求地方法官逮捕那些歹徒。 来自辞典例句

13 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

14 alienation   

n.疏远；离间；异化

参考例句：

• The new policy resulted in the alienation of many voters.新政策导致许多选民疏远了。
• As almost every conceivable contact between human beings gets automated,the alienation index goes up.随着人与人之间几乎一切能想到的接触方式的自动化，感情疏远指数在不断上升。

15 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

16 borough   

n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇

参考例句：

• He was slated for borough president.他被提名做自治区主席。
• That's what happened to Harry Barritt of London's Bromley borough.住在伦敦的布罗姆利自治市的哈里.巴里特就经历了此事。

17 insufficiently   

adv.不够地，不能胜任地

参考例句：

• Your insurance card is insufficiently stamped. 你的保险卡片未贴足印花。 来自辞典例句
• Many of Britain's people are poorly dressed, badly housed, insufficiently nourished. 许多英国人衣着寒伧，居住简陋，营养不良。 来自互联网

18 vouchers   

n.凭证( voucher的名词复数 )；证人；证件；收据

参考例句：

• These vouchers are redeemable against any future purchase. 这些优惠券将来购物均可使用。
• This time we were given free vouchers to spend the night in a nearby hotel. 这一次我们得到了在附近一家旅馆入住的免费券。 来自英语晨读30分（高二）

19 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

20 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

21 doled   

救济物( dole的过去式和过去分词 )； 失业救济金

参考例句：

• The food was doled out to the poor. 食品分发给了穷人。
• Sisco briskly doled out the United States positions on the key issues. 西斯科轻快地把美国在重大问题上的立场放了出去。

22 indigent   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的

参考例句：

• The town government is responsible for assistance to indigent people.镇政府负责给穷人提供帮助。
• A judge normally appoints the attorney for an indigent defendant at the defendant's first court appearence.法官通常会在贫穷被告人第一次出庭时，为其指派一名辩护律师。

23 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

24 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

26 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

27 complacent   

adj.自满的；自鸣得意的

参考例句：

• We must not become complacent the moment we have some success.我们决不能一见成绩就自满起来。
• She was complacent about her achievements.她对自己的成绩沾沾自喜。