To test how much you know about the worldwide image of the United States, we invite you to take our short 10-question quiz. Then see how you did and browse our reports and interactive database to learn more about how people around the world view the U.S. and President Barack Obama, as well as their opinions on globalization, democracy, extremism and other important issues. The quiz is based on key findings from the Spring 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, conducted in 21 countries among 26,210 respondents from March 17 to April 20. The countries surveyed were Brazil, Britain, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States.

Lead abatement, alcohol taxes and 10 other ways to reduce the crime rate without annoying the NRA

Here are a dozen policies that would cut assault and homicide rates — but that have nothing to do with guns. That said, while they won't annoy the NRA, they often have their own set of powerful lobbies to confront.

A lot of theories have been posed for explaining the fall in crime rates, and in particular violent crime rates, since the 1990s. Did "broken windows" policing work? What about data-driven approaches like CompStat? Was it that legal abortion allowed unprepared mothers to delay parenthood, and spare their kids childhood environments that might encourage criminality later on? Or does the falling price of cocaine explain it?
None of the above. The real answer, it's now becoming clear, is lead. In the 1970s, the environmental movement succeeded in getting lead out of gasoline and household paint, and the result has been smarter, less violent kids. Economist Rick Nevin has found that, if you add a 23-year lag, variations in lead exposure explain 90 percent of the variation in crime rates in the United States.



....

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out that a lot of violent youth just need a good therapist.

Multi-systemic therapy (MST), for instance, intensively targets juvenile offenders with four months of therapy, occurring multiple times a week with therapists with very small caseloads. Three randomized trials have found positive effects. Around 14 years on, one study found youth participating had spent 57 percent fewer days incarcerated than the control group. Another found that arrest rates for aggressive crimes were 75 percent lower in the treatment group four years on than in the control group. The third found 39 percent fewer arrests in the treatment group after only two years.

Lead abatement, alcohol taxes and 10 other ways to reduce the crime rate without annoying the NRA

Secondhand Smoke (SHS) Facts

In children, secondhand smoke causes the following:

• Ear infections


• More frequent and severe asthma attacks


• Respiratory symptoms (e.g., coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath)


• Respiratory infections (i.e., bronchitis, pneumonia)


• A greater risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

In children aged 18 months or younger, secondhand smoke exposure is responsible for—

• an estimated 150,000–300,000 new cases of bronchitis and pneumonia annually, and


• approximately 7,500–15,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States.

Secondhand Smoke (SHS) Facts