Gangs and Jobs

“Study Ranks Joblessness Top Factor in Gang Toll” (Oct. 28) seems to imply that joblessness causes gang violence. This would seem to support the view that if we only provided more jobs, gang violence would decrease. But the only data presented show a correlation between the jobless rate and gang murders, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

You could just as easily claim the reverse--that gang violence causes joblessness in a neighborhood (by encouraging the more successful families to move). The most accurate conclusion is probably that both joblessness and gang violence result from common underlying factors such as moral, psychological and intellectual impoverishment. But the point is that you cannot make any such conclusions from the data presented.

ROB KRAMARZ

Playa del Rey