"But the idea of classical music as a force for good fits right in with the widespread image — among classical music lovers, at least — of this art form’s exalted purpose. Classical music is often presented as a panacea. It can calm patients during surgery. It can socialize inner-city children and turn them into brilliant musicians (witness the El Sistema training program in Venezuela, which spawned conductor Gustavo Dudamel and a half-dozen other rising young stars). It can make you smarter (the so-called Mozart effect, which led to an unfortunate wave of bowdlerized music-for-babies CDs and videos starting in the 1990s). And now, it can fight crime, fulfilling its traditional elitist role by separating all of us good people who love classical music from the great unwashed, who flee like cartoon villains from the very sound of it."
— Blasting Mozart to drive criminals away - The Washington Post
