Maharishi Effect
Decreased Crime Rate in U.S. Cities II
Twenty-four cities in which 1% of the population began Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation program by 1972 displayed significant decreases in crime rate during the next year (1973) and a decreased crime rate trend during the subsequent five years (1972-1977 in comparison to 1967-1972). In contrast, crime rate increased in 24 matched control cities.
Reference: Dillbeck, Landrith, & Orme-Johnson, 1981.
Population influenced: 24 U.S. cities with a population between 10,000 and 100,000, compared to 24 matched control cities.
Coherence group: 1% of population instructed in the TM program by 1972.
Dependent variables: Rate of total Part 1 crimes from FBI.
Experimental design: Analysis of the change in crime rate from 1972 to 1973. Also, change in crime rate trend, from 1967-72 (control period) to 1972-77 (experimental period) in 24 cities with 1% TM participation compared with 24 control cities. Controls had less than .7% practicing the TM program, and were matched on population, college population, and geographic region. The following variables were controlled statistically: population, population density, median years education, percentage of persons in same residence after five years, per capita income, percent of persons aged 15-29, percentage unemployed, and percentage of families with incomes below poverty level.
Results: Univariate analysis of covariance of reduction in crime rate in 1973 was significant (p<.02) and reduction of crime trend (1972-1977) was significant (p<.02).
Conclusions: There is a phase transition to decreased crime rate after cities reach 1% TM program participants, as well as a reduction in the trend of crime in subsequent years, independent of variation in demographic variables such as median years education, stability of residency, and previous levels of crime rate.
Reference: Dillbeck, M.C., Landrith, G., III, & Orme-Johnson, D.W. (1981). The Transcendental Meditation program and crime rate change in a sample of forty-eight cities. Journal of Crime and Justice, 4, 25-45. (Reprinted in Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program: Collected Papers, Vol. 4, pp. 2487-2495).
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