Kevin R. Reitz (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190203542
- eISBN:
- 9780190203566
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190203542.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Comparative and Historical Sociology
The idea of American exceptionalism has made frequent appearances in discussions of criminal justice policies—as it has in many other areas—to help portray or explain problems that are especially ...
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The idea of American exceptionalism has made frequent appearances in discussions of criminal justice policies—as it has in many other areas—to help portray or explain problems that are especially acute in the United States, including mass incarceration, retention of the death penalty, racial and ethnic disparities in punishment, and the War on Drugs. While scholars do not universally agree that it is an apt or useful framework, there is no question that the United States is an outlier compared with other industrialized democracies in its punitive and exclusionary criminal justice policies. This book deepens the debate on American exceptionalism in crime and punishment through comparative political, economic, and historical analyses, working toward forward-looking prescriptions for American law, policy, and institutions of government. The chapters expand the existing American Exceptionalism literature to neglected areas such as community supervision, economic penalties, parole release, and collateral consequences of conviction; explore claims of causation, in particular that the history of slavery and racial inequality has been a primary driver of crime policy; examine arguments that the framework of multiple governments and localized crime control, populist style of democracy, and laissez-faire economy are implicated in problems of both crime and punishment; and assess theories that cultural values are the most salient predictors of penal severity and violent crime. The book asserts that the largest problems of crime and justice cannot be brought into focus from the perspective of a single jurisdiction and that comparative inquiries are necessary for an understanding of the current predicament in the United States.Less
The idea of American exceptionalism has made frequent appearances in discussions of criminal justice policies—as it has in many other areas—to help portray or explain problems that are especially acute in the United States, including mass incarceration, retention of the death penalty, racial and ethnic disparities in punishment, and the War on Drugs. While scholars do not universally agree that it is an apt or useful framework, there is no question that the United States is an outlier compared with other industrialized democracies in its punitive and exclusionary criminal justice policies. This book deepens the debate on American exceptionalism in crime and punishment through comparative political, economic, and historical analyses, working toward forward-looking prescriptions for American law, policy, and institutions of government. The chapters expand the existing American Exceptionalism literature to neglected areas such as community supervision, economic penalties, parole release, and collateral consequences of conviction; explore claims of causation, in particular that the history of slavery and racial inequality has been a primary driver of crime policy; examine arguments that the framework of multiple governments and localized crime control, populist style of democracy, and laissez-faire economy are implicated in problems of both crime and punishment; and assess theories that cultural values are the most salient predictors of penal severity and violent crime. The book asserts that the largest problems of crime and justice cannot be brought into focus from the perspective of a single jurisdiction and that comparative inquiries are necessary for an understanding of the current predicament in the United States.
Franklin E. Zimring
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195181166
- eISBN:
- 9780199943302
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181166.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This volume discusses criminology and policy analysis of adolescence. The focus is on the principles and policy of a separate and distinct system of juvenile justice. The book opens with an ...
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This volume discusses criminology and policy analysis of adolescence. The focus is on the principles and policy of a separate and distinct system of juvenile justice. The book opens with an introduction of the creation of adolescence, presenting a justification for the category of the juvenile or a period of partial responsibility before full adulthood. Subsequent sections include empirical investigations of the nature of youth criminality and legal policy towards youth crime. At the heart of the book is an argument for a penal policy that recognizes diminished responsibility and a youth policy that emphasizes the benefits of letting the maturing process continue with minimal interruption. The book concludes with applications of the core concerns to five specific problem areas in current juvenile justice: teen pregnancy, transfer to criminal court, minority overrepresentation, juvenile gun use, and youth homicide.Less
This volume discusses criminology and policy analysis of adolescence. The focus is on the principles and policy of a separate and distinct system of juvenile justice. The book opens with an introduction of the creation of adolescence, presenting a justification for the category of the juvenile or a period of partial responsibility before full adulthood. Subsequent sections include empirical investigations of the nature of youth criminality and legal policy towards youth crime. At the heart of the book is an argument for a penal policy that recognizes diminished responsibility and a youth policy that emphasizes the benefits of letting the maturing process continue with minimal interruption. The book concludes with applications of the core concerns to five specific problem areas in current juvenile justice: teen pregnancy, transfer to criminal court, minority overrepresentation, juvenile gun use, and youth homicide.
Katherine Beckett and Steve Herbert
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195395174
- eISBN:
- 9780199943319
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395174.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
With urban poverty rising and affordable housing disappearing, the homeless and other “disorderly” people continue to occupy public space in many American cities. Concerned about the alleged ill ...
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With urban poverty rising and affordable housing disappearing, the homeless and other “disorderly” people continue to occupy public space in many American cities. Concerned about the alleged ill effects their presence inflicts on property values and public safety, many cities have wholeheartedly embraced “zero-tolerance” or “broken window” policing efforts to clear the streets of unwanted people. Through an almost completely unnoticed set of practices, these people are banned from occupying certain spaces. Once zoned out, they are subject to arrest if they return—effectively banished from public places. This book offers an exploration of these new tactics that dramatically enhance the power of the police to monitor and arrest thousands of city dwellers. Drawing upon an extensive body of data, the chapters chart the rise of banishment in Seattle, a city on the leading edge of this emerging trend, to establish how it works and explore its ramifications. They demonstrate that, although the practice allows police and public officials to appear responsive to concerns about urban disorder, it is a highly questionable policy—it is expensive, does not reduce crime, and does not address the underlying conditions that generate urban poverty. Moreover, interviews with the banished themselves reveal that exclusion makes their lives and their path to self-sufficiency immeasurably more difficult. At a time when ever more cities and governments in the U.S. and Europe resort to the criminal justice system to solve complex social problems, the book provides a challenge to exclusionary strategies that diminish the life circumstances and the rights of those it targets.Less
With urban poverty rising and affordable housing disappearing, the homeless and other “disorderly” people continue to occupy public space in many American cities. Concerned about the alleged ill effects their presence inflicts on property values and public safety, many cities have wholeheartedly embraced “zero-tolerance” or “broken window” policing efforts to clear the streets of unwanted people. Through an almost completely unnoticed set of practices, these people are banned from occupying certain spaces. Once zoned out, they are subject to arrest if they return—effectively banished from public places. This book offers an exploration of these new tactics that dramatically enhance the power of the police to monitor and arrest thousands of city dwellers. Drawing upon an extensive body of data, the chapters chart the rise of banishment in Seattle, a city on the leading edge of this emerging trend, to establish how it works and explore its ramifications. They demonstrate that, although the practice allows police and public officials to appear responsive to concerns about urban disorder, it is a highly questionable policy—it is expensive, does not reduce crime, and does not address the underlying conditions that generate urban poverty. Moreover, interviews with the banished themselves reveal that exclusion makes their lives and their path to self-sufficiency immeasurably more difficult. At a time when ever more cities and governments in the U.S. and Europe resort to the criminal justice system to solve complex social problems, the book provides a challenge to exclusionary strategies that diminish the life circumstances and the rights of those it targets.
Philip Goodman, Joshua Page, and Michelle Phelps
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199976058
- eISBN:
- 9780190669935
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199976058.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
The history of criminal justice in the United States is often described as a pendulum, swinging back and forth between strict punishment and lenient rehabilitation. While this view is common wisdom, ...
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The history of criminal justice in the United States is often described as a pendulum, swinging back and forth between strict punishment and lenient rehabilitation. While this view is common wisdom, it is wrong. In Breaking the Pendulum, Philip Goodman, Joshua Page, and Michelle Phelps debunk the pendulum perspective, showing that it distorts how and why criminal justice changes. The pendulum model blinds us to the blending of penal orientations, policies, and practices, as well as the struggle among actors who shape laws, institutions, and how we think about crime, punishment, and related issues.Through a reanalysis of more than 200 years of penal history, starting with the rise of penitentiaries in the nineteenth century and ending with ongoing efforts to roll back mass incarceration, the authors offer an alternative approach to conceptualizing penal development. Their agonistic perspective posits that struggle is the motor force of criminal justice history. Punishment expands, contracts, and morphs because of contestation between real people in real contexts, not a mechanical “swing” of the pendulum. This alternative framework is far more accurate and empowering than metaphors that ignore or downplay the importance of struggle in shaping criminal justice.This clearly written, engaging book is an invaluable resource for teachers, students, and scholars seeking to understand the past, present, and future of criminal justice in the United States. By demonstrating the central role of struggle in generating major transformations, Breaking the Pendulum encourages combatants to keep fighting to change the system.Less
The history of criminal justice in the United States is often described as a pendulum, swinging back and forth between strict punishment and lenient rehabilitation. While this view is common wisdom, it is wrong. In Breaking the Pendulum, Philip Goodman, Joshua Page, and Michelle Phelps debunk the pendulum perspective, showing that it distorts how and why criminal justice changes. The pendulum model blinds us to the blending of penal orientations, policies, and practices, as well as the struggle among actors who shape laws, institutions, and how we think about crime, punishment, and related issues.Through a reanalysis of more than 200 years of penal history, starting with the rise of penitentiaries in the nineteenth century and ending with ongoing efforts to roll back mass incarceration, the authors offer an alternative approach to conceptualizing penal development. Their agonistic perspective posits that struggle is the motor force of criminal justice history. Punishment expands, contracts, and morphs because of contestation between real people in real contexts, not a mechanical “swing” of the pendulum. This alternative framework is far more accurate and empowering than metaphors that ignore or downplay the importance of struggle in shaping criminal justice.This clearly written, engaging book is an invaluable resource for teachers, students, and scholars seeking to understand the past, present, and future of criminal justice in the United States. By demonstrating the central role of struggle in generating major transformations, Breaking the Pendulum encourages combatants to keep fighting to change the system.
Sara Wakefield and Christopher Wildeman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199989225
- eISBN:
- 9780199347612
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199989225.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility, Law, Crime and Deviance
An unrelenting prison boom, marked by large racial disparities in the risk of incarceration, characterized the latter third of the 20th century. Drawing on broadly representative survey data and ...
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An unrelenting prison boom, marked by large racial disparities in the risk of incarceration, characterized the latter third of the 20th century. Drawing on broadly representative survey data and qualitative interviews, Children of the Prison Boom describes the devastating effects of America’s experiment in mass incarceration for a generation of vulnerable children. Parental imprisonment has been transformed from an event affecting only the unluckiest of children—children of parents whose involvement in crime would have been quite serious—to one that is remarkably common, especially for black children. Even for children at high risk of problems, Children of the Prison Boom shows that paternal incarceration makes a bad situation worse and substantially increases family instability and racial inequality in child well-being.Less
An unrelenting prison boom, marked by large racial disparities in the risk of incarceration, characterized the latter third of the 20th century. Drawing on broadly representative survey data and qualitative interviews, Children of the Prison Boom describes the devastating effects of America’s experiment in mass incarceration for a generation of vulnerable children. Parental imprisonment has been transformed from an event affecting only the unluckiest of children—children of parents whose involvement in crime would have been quite serious—to one that is remarkably common, especially for black children. Even for children at high risk of problems, Children of the Prison Boom shows that paternal incarceration makes a bad situation worse and substantially increases family instability and racial inequality in child well-being.
Jennifer Carlson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199347551
- eISBN:
- 9780190236595
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199347551.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture, Law, Crime and Deviance
For the past several decades, the United States has witnessed a profound transformation in what Americans do with the guns they own. While hunting used to dominate American gun culture, now the top ...
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For the past several decades, the United States has witnessed a profound transformation in what Americans do with the guns they own. While hunting used to dominate American gun culture, now the top reason for owning a gun is protection, and today, there are over eleven million concealed carry licensees. Why are millions of Americans—disproportionately American men—choosing to carry guns as part of their everyday lives? And what are the effects of gun carry on contemporary notions of citizenship, governance, and crime? This book examines these questions. Focusing on southeastern Michigan, particularly Metro Detroit, as a window into broader processes of socioeconomic decline in the United States, the book analyzes how men use guns to navigate contexts of social insecurity and how men’s use of guns is shaped by socio-legal structures supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA). The book draws on in-depth interviews with gun carriers and NRA-certified instructors and ethnography at firearms classes, activist events, and shooting ranges; and online gun forums. The author also obtained a concealed-pistol license, carried a gun on a regular basis, and became certified as an NRA instructor.Less
For the past several decades, the United States has witnessed a profound transformation in what Americans do with the guns they own. While hunting used to dominate American gun culture, now the top reason for owning a gun is protection, and today, there are over eleven million concealed carry licensees. Why are millions of Americans—disproportionately American men—choosing to carry guns as part of their everyday lives? And what are the effects of gun carry on contemporary notions of citizenship, governance, and crime? This book examines these questions. Focusing on southeastern Michigan, particularly Metro Detroit, as a window into broader processes of socioeconomic decline in the United States, the book analyzes how men use guns to navigate contexts of social insecurity and how men’s use of guns is shaped by socio-legal structures supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA). The book draws on in-depth interviews with gun carriers and NRA-certified instructors and ethnography at firearms classes, activist events, and shooting ranges; and online gun forums. The author also obtained a concealed-pistol license, carried a gun on a regular basis, and became certified as an NRA instructor.
Franklin E. Zimring
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199844425
- eISBN:
- 9780199943357
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199844425.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
The 40% drop in crime that occurred across the U.S. from 1991 to 2000 largely remains an unsolved mystery. Even more puzzling then is the crime rate drop in New York City, which lasted twice as long ...
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The 40% drop in crime that occurred across the U.S. from 1991 to 2000 largely remains an unsolved mystery. Even more puzzling then is the crime rate drop in New York City, which lasted twice as long and was twice as large. This 80% drop in crime over nineteen years represents the largest crime decline on record. This book sets off in search of the reason for the New York difference through a detailed and comprehensive statistical investigation into the city's falling crime rates and possible explanations. If you listen to City Hall, aggressive police created a zero tolerance law enforcement regime that drove crime rates down. Is this self-serving political sound bite true? Are the official statistics generated by the police accurate? The book shows the numbers are correct and argues that some combination of more cops, new tactics, and new management can take some credit for the decline, but zero tolerance policing and quality of life were never a consistent part of the NYPD's strategy. That the police can make a difference in preventing crime overturns decades of conventional wisdom for criminologists, but the book points out that the New York experience challenges the major assumptions dominating American crime and drug control policies that almost everyone else has missed. First, imprisonment in actually New York decreased significantly from 1990 to 2009 and was well below the national average, proving that it is possible to have substantially less crime without increases in incarceration. Second, the NYPD sharply reduced drug violence (over 90%) without any reduction in hard drug use. In other words, they won the war on drug violence without winning the war on drugs. Finally, the stability of New York's population, economy, education, demographics, or immigration patterns calls into question the long-accepted cultural and structural causes of violence in America's cities. That fact that high rates of crime are not hard wired into modern city life is welcome news for policy makers, criminal justice officials, and urban dwellers everywhere.Less
The 40% drop in crime that occurred across the U.S. from 1991 to 2000 largely remains an unsolved mystery. Even more puzzling then is the crime rate drop in New York City, which lasted twice as long and was twice as large. This 80% drop in crime over nineteen years represents the largest crime decline on record. This book sets off in search of the reason for the New York difference through a detailed and comprehensive statistical investigation into the city's falling crime rates and possible explanations. If you listen to City Hall, aggressive police created a zero tolerance law enforcement regime that drove crime rates down. Is this self-serving political sound bite true? Are the official statistics generated by the police accurate? The book shows the numbers are correct and argues that some combination of more cops, new tactics, and new management can take some credit for the decline, but zero tolerance policing and quality of life were never a consistent part of the NYPD's strategy. That the police can make a difference in preventing crime overturns decades of conventional wisdom for criminologists, but the book points out that the New York experience challenges the major assumptions dominating American crime and drug control policies that almost everyone else has missed. First, imprisonment in actually New York decreased significantly from 1990 to 2009 and was well below the national average, proving that it is possible to have substantially less crime without increases in incarceration. Second, the NYPD sharply reduced drug violence (over 90%) without any reduction in hard drug use. In other words, they won the war on drug violence without winning the war on drugs. Finally, the stability of New York's population, economy, education, demographics, or immigration patterns calls into question the long-accepted cultural and structural causes of violence in America's cities. That fact that high rates of crime are not hard wired into modern city life is welcome news for policy makers, criminal justice officials, and urban dwellers everywhere.
David Weisburd, Elizabeth R. Groff, and Sue-Ming Yang
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780195369083
- eISBN:
- 9780199979110
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369083.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
The study of crime has focused primarily on why particular people commit crime or why specific communities have higher crime levels than others. This book presents a new and different way of looking ...
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The study of crime has focused primarily on why particular people commit crime or why specific communities have higher crime levels than others. This book presents a new and different way of looking at the crime problem by examining why specific streets in a city have specific crime trends over time. Based on a sixteen-year longitudinal study of crime in Seattle, Washington, the book focuses our attention on small units of geographic analysis-micro communities, defined as street segments. Half of all Seattle crime each year occurs on just 5–6% of the city's street segments, yet these crime hot spots are not concentrated in a single neighborhood and street by street variability is tremendous. This book sets out to explain why. It shows how much essential information about crime is inevitably lost when we focus on larger units like neighborhoods or communities. Reorienting the study of crime by focusing on small units of geography, the book identifies a large group of possible crime risk and protective factors for street segments and an array of interventions that could be implemented to address them.Less
The study of crime has focused primarily on why particular people commit crime or why specific communities have higher crime levels than others. This book presents a new and different way of looking at the crime problem by examining why specific streets in a city have specific crime trends over time. Based on a sixteen-year longitudinal study of crime in Seattle, Washington, the book focuses our attention on small units of geographic analysis-micro communities, defined as street segments. Half of all Seattle crime each year occurs on just 5–6% of the city's street segments, yet these crime hot spots are not concentrated in a single neighborhood and street by street variability is tremendous. This book sets out to explain why. It shows how much essential information about crime is inevitably lost when we focus on larger units like neighborhoods or communities. Reorienting the study of crime by focusing on small units of geography, the book identifies a large group of possible crime risk and protective factors for street segments and an array of interventions that could be implemented to address them.
Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199828166
- eISBN:
- 9780199951208
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199828166.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Why do many juveniles stop offending when they grow up? Why are juvenile delinquents dealt with differently in the courts than adult criminals, and should young adults be dealt with differently than ...
More
Why do many juveniles stop offending when they grow up? Why are juvenile delinquents dealt with differently in the courts than adult criminals, and should young adults be dealt with differently than older adults? And what is special about the 18th birthday when the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system in most states and most European countries, offering protection and rehabilitation, ends and the more punitive and less rehabilitative criminal justice system for adults starts? Since most juveniles take longer than age 18 to mature and become less impulsive, what is a more realistic distinction between adolescence and adulthood and justice response to adolescents and young adults? These and many other questions pertaining to the transition between adolescence and adulthood are addressed in this volume. The volume is based on hundreds of scientific studies, which are summarized in 11 chapters. The chapters deal with criminal careers, particularly desistance from and persistence in offending, explanatory factors of persistence and desistance, such as, for example, early individual differences in self-control, brain maturation, social risk and protective factors, mental illnesses, changes in life circumstances, neighborhood factors, and juvenile justice response. The volume also highlights the best evaluated and cost-effective programs that prevent juveniles from becoming persistent offenders in adulthood, and reduce recidivism among known delinquents. Finally, the volume addresses the advantages and disadvantages of legislators increasing or decreasing the age of adulthood with an eye on improving public safety.Less
Why do many juveniles stop offending when they grow up? Why are juvenile delinquents dealt with differently in the courts than adult criminals, and should young adults be dealt with differently than older adults? And what is special about the 18th birthday when the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system in most states and most European countries, offering protection and rehabilitation, ends and the more punitive and less rehabilitative criminal justice system for adults starts? Since most juveniles take longer than age 18 to mature and become less impulsive, what is a more realistic distinction between adolescence and adulthood and justice response to adolescents and young adults? These and many other questions pertaining to the transition between adolescence and adulthood are addressed in this volume. The volume is based on hundreds of scientific studies, which are summarized in 11 chapters. The chapters deal with criminal careers, particularly desistance from and persistence in offending, explanatory factors of persistence and desistance, such as, for example, early individual differences in self-control, brain maturation, social risk and protective factors, mental illnesses, changes in life circumstances, neighborhood factors, and juvenile justice response. The volume also highlights the best evaluated and cost-effective programs that prevent juveniles from becoming persistent offenders in adulthood, and reduce recidivism among known delinquents. Finally, the volume addresses the advantages and disadvantages of legislators increasing or decreasing the age of adulthood with an eye on improving public safety.
Franklin E. Zimring
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195181159
- eISBN:
- 9780199944132
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181159.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
The major lesson from the 1990s is that relatively superficial changes in the character of urban life can be associated with up to 75% drops in the crime rate. Crime can drop even if there is no ...
More
The major lesson from the 1990s is that relatively superficial changes in the character of urban life can be associated with up to 75% drops in the crime rate. Crime can drop even if there is no major change in the population, the economy or the schools. Offering the most reliable data available, this book documents the decline in the 1990s in American crime as the longest and largest since World War II. It ranges across both violent and non-violent offenses, all regions, and every demographic. All Americans, whether they live in cities or suburbs, whether rich or poor, are safer today. Casting a critical and unerring eye on current explanations, the book demonstrates that both long-standing theories of crime prevention and recently generated theories fall far short of explaining the drop in the 1990s. A careful study of Canadian crime trends reveals that imprisonment and economic factors may not have played the role in the U.S. crime drop that many have suggested. A combination of factors rather than a single cause produced the decline. It is clear that declines in the crime rate do not require fundamental social or structural change, but that smaller shifts in policy can make large differences. The significant reductions in crime rates, especially in New York, where crime dropped twice the national average, suggests that there is room for other cities to repeat this astounding success.Less
The major lesson from the 1990s is that relatively superficial changes in the character of urban life can be associated with up to 75% drops in the crime rate. Crime can drop even if there is no major change in the population, the economy or the schools. Offering the most reliable data available, this book documents the decline in the 1990s in American crime as the longest and largest since World War II. It ranges across both violent and non-violent offenses, all regions, and every demographic. All Americans, whether they live in cities or suburbs, whether rich or poor, are safer today. Casting a critical and unerring eye on current explanations, the book demonstrates that both long-standing theories of crime prevention and recently generated theories fall far short of explaining the drop in the 1990s. A careful study of Canadian crime trends reveals that imprisonment and economic factors may not have played the role in the U.S. crime drop that many have suggested. A combination of factors rather than a single cause produced the decline. It is clear that declines in the crime rate do not require fundamental social or structural change, but that smaller shifts in policy can make large differences. The significant reductions in crime rates, especially in New York, where crime dropped twice the national average, suggests that there is room for other cities to repeat this astounding success.
“A Gentleman and an Officer”
‘A Nation of Beggars’?
The A Priori in Philosophy
A. J. Appasamy and his Reading of Rāmānuja
A. J. Tomlinson
Aaron Hill
The Abbey Theatre, 1899-1999
The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England
Abelard and Heloise
