
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 25, 1994                   TAG: 9403250175
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HAMPTON                                LENGTH: Short

UNEMPLOYMENT BLAMED FOR CRIME

Sociologists and educators attending a conference agreed Thursday that guns are destroying the black community, but some said unemployment is a greater problem.

"I'm afraid we're dealing with a symptom rather than dealing with the underlying problem," said Samuel L. Myers, a professor of human relations and social justice at the University of Minnesota.

Myers and Darnell Hawkins, chairman of African-American studies at the University of Illinois, said creating jobs would do more to cut crime than ridding handguns.

"Maybe we can keep talking about banning handguns, but we should also continue to talk about economic inequity," Hawkins said at Hampton University.

- Associated Press

by CNB