Sharks: Beautiful and Necessary CIRCLE Informs Civic Engagement the Death Penalty: Making It Fair and Just Philadelphia Evaluated Notes from the President
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VOLUME 10 / NUMBER 1 / SPRING 2007 TrustThe Pew Charitable Trusts Sharks: Beautiful and Necessary CIRCLE Informs Civic Engagement The Death Penalty: Making it Fair and Just Philadelphia Evaluated Notes from the President Studies supported by Pew and others ing states to reform their death-penalty have identified the challenges con- systems. The project now works to fronting ocean management and the ensure that all states apply the new conservation measures needed to law, and it is promoting reform specifi- rebuild depleted fish stocks. This cally in Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee Dominoes knowledge led us, with our partners, and Texas, where new policies may to launch the Shark Alliance, based in have a bellwether effect on the other Amsterdam and representing a coali- 34 states with the death penalty. omino toppling is an inter- tion of 30 organizations working to Desting activity. Players line generate public support and overcome omino toppling reportedly up their “bones,” or tiles, then push the perception that sharks, as fearsome started in college dorm the first and watch the others pro- creatures, are not worth preserving. rooms, so it may be only ceed in sequence, unless a glitch, The alliance also advocates for the appropriate that its effect like a misalignment, stops the action. closing of loopholes in shark-finning Dcan be seen in encouraging young The “domino effect,” of course, has regulations in the European Union and people to become civically engaged. become a part of our language: a series seeks to secure responsible, science- Until recently, the percentage of young of successive events, each irreversibly based fishing limits for both the sus- voters was decreasing. But research causing the next. It is an apt analogy tainability of sharks and the health of explored the incentives that motivate for Pew’s work, which we organize not the ecosystem. Initial support from young people to participate and ex- only sequentially but also consequen- several countries—for example, Bel- plained how to implement the find- tially: later stages are determined by gium, Germany and the United King- ings. This work was carried out by the previous results. Through research, dom—may attract other countries. the Center for Information and Re- we identify a problem of wide public And success in Europe will help search on Civic Learning and Engage- concern, define a niche by which we strengthen a broader resolve to pro- ment (CIRCLE), based at the Univer- can address it, produce unbiased, data- tect sharks and thus the biological sity of Maryland and supported by the based information, apply this knowl- integrity of entire marine ecosystems. Carnegie Corporation and Pew. edge to potential solutions, assess public CIRCLE disseminates the research opinion and then promote policy change ata were also the starting results—for instance, that young Ameri- where the facts are clear and com- point for Pew’s work on cans will often turn out to vote if con- pelling. Furthermore, collaborations reforming the death penalty tacted in a personalized or other with others can make this pattern of system so that it is admin- interactive way—and it offers con- events occur more rapidly and decisively. Distered in a just manner. Research structive advice to organizations that Pew’s work to stop the wasteful and revealed the need for three key reforms: reach young voters. The dominoes are brutal practice of shark-finning—the access to DNA testing, adequate legal now falling in a positive direction: at-sea removal of shark fins and the representation, and procedural safe- More young people are voting, others discard of live sharks or carcasses— guards such as trustworthy eyewitness are getting the word that it’s “cool” to began with data showing that over- identification—all goals of the Death participate, and politicians are taking fishing imperiled the world’s fisheries. Penalty Reform Initiative, supported this constituency more seriously. Studies on sharks find up to 73 million by Pew and our donor partners. Like a successful tumble of domi- killed annually—an unsustainable Importantly, the project takes no noes, reaching solutions to challenging level for nearly all species. stand on the death penalty itself. social issues requires the thoughtful Importantly, sharks are the first tile in Instead, it alerts the public and policy alignment of building blocks. At Pew, their own domain. They top the ocean makers to a view shared by both our investments are designed to serve food chain, and the sharply reduced supporters and opponents of capital the public interest. With that goal in abundance of these animals disrupts punishment—that innocent people sight, we develop fact-based strategies, everything below. The result has been should never be sentenced to death leverage public participation and build “a cascade of unexpected effects,” as or executed, and society is best served momentum for bold action—a process The Washington Post described it when when the actual perpetrators are in more complex than a string of domi- reporting that an increase of rays custody and trials are fair and accurate. noes but experienced-tested and a and skates, normally kept in check The initiative created a climate that powerful tool for change. by sharks, caused such devastation led to the bipartisan Justice for All Act, of the North Carolina scallop fishery federal legislation (which includes the Rebecca W. Rimel that it closed in 2004. Innocence Protection Act) encourag- President and CEO Trust / Spring 2007 1 Trust The Pew Charitable Trusts VOLUME 10 NUMBER 1 SPRING 2007 Saving Jaws 2 Sharks are at the top of the marine food Trust pyramid. Were they to disappear, the havoc to ocean ecosystems would be Published three times a year by catastrophic. The Pew Charitable Trusts © 2006 The Pew Charitable Trusts CIRCLE of Facts and Figures ISSN: 1540-4587 10 CIRCLE is a research organization with The Board of a determinedly practical bent—to foster The Pew Charitable Trusts civic engagement in young people. Robert H. Campbell Susan W. Catherwood Gloria Twine Chisum Alan J. Davis No Room for Mistakes J. Howard Pew II 14 J.N. Pew IV, M.D. Fair and just trials, strong and accurate convictions. That’s the aim of a Pew- Mary Catharine Pew, M.D. supported project on the death penalty R. Anderson Pew system. Sandy Ford Pew Rebecca W. Rimel Robert G. Williams Ethel Benson Wister The Philly Factor A new report: Philadelphia has “real 21 President and CEO believers and sources of initiative” — Rebecca W. Rimel much better than a 1999 study that said the city “settles for being just okay.” Managing Director of Public Affairs Deborah L. Hayes Editor Departments The Pew Charitable Trusts serves the public Marshall A. Ledger interest by providing information, advanc- NOTES FROM THE PRESIDENT Inside ing policy solutions and supporting civic Senior Writer front life. Based in Philadelphia, with an office Cascades. cover in Washington, D.C., the Trusts will invest Sandra Salmans $248 million in fiscal year 2007 to provide organizations and citizens with fact-based Editorial Assistants research and practical solutions for chal- Colleen A. Miller LESSONS LEARNED lenging issues. Renee S. Wagoner Electionline.org The Trusts, an independent nonprofit, is 25 the sole beneficiary of seven individual charitable funds established between 1948 One Commerce Square and 1979 by two sons and two daughters of 2005 Market Street, Ste. 1700 RECENT GRANTS AND Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew Philadelphia, PA 19103-7077 ALLOCATIONS and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. Phone 215.575.9050 27 The official registration and financial information of The Pew Charitable Trusts may be obtained from the Pennsylvania On the Internet: Department of State by calling toll-free, www.pewtrusts.org BRIEFINGS within Pennsylvania, 1.800.732.0999. Annual media trends by the Project for32 Registration does not imply endorsement. Design/Art Direction Excellence in Journalism, the Franklin Court museum, the Pew Internet & Lewis & Nobel Design American Life Project examines blogs, the pinhole camera makes a comeback in the exhibition Taken With Time, an Cover art: Nature takes its course off the opinion about the Pew Research Center, New England coast. Photographer Aging Gracefully with a financially secure Brian J. Skerry found this blue retirement, fan mail for SoundAboutPhilly, shark with a parasitic copepod Eakins’s The Gross Clinic. attached to its dorsal fin. 2 Trust / Spring 2007 harks are not obviously charismatic, but the oceans surely need these mysterious—and intelligent—creatures. Thirty years ago, Jaws terrorized cinema-goers around the world on its way to becoming the first true blockbuster action film. An entire generation learned to fear “man-eating” sharks, and there are plenty of people out A V I N S there who can’t swim in the ocean without S G J A W hearing the film’s famous daa-dum soundtrack playing in their head, the tempo quickening as the hungry preda- tor approaches. In actuality, however, people have never been the prey of sharks, as was so erroneously depicted in the movie. Indeed, the reverse is true. An estimated 27 to 73 million sharks a year are killed by fishermen 3 Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch / Spring 2007 Trust viewers may remember. may viewers needs protection. others, many like The species, One author Peter Benchley lamented having helped solidify until the day he died. helped solidify until the day lamented having Benchley author Peter Jaws Jaws of the movie’s most enduring legacies is the notion that sharks and destructive pose a significant threat to of the movie’s people—a bias that A great white shark,A great as S D R A D W O O W N I A L O C Y B J G N I V A S 4 Trust / Spring 2007 a l a S c i r n E predominantly for their fins, accord- ing to an analysis co-authored by leading shark-trade expert Shelley Clarke, Ph.D., of the University of Hawaii, and Ellen K.