Studies in crime and public policy

Many theories, from the routine to the bizarre, have been offered to explain the crime decline of the 1990s - record levels of imprisonment, an abatement of the crack cocaine epidemic, more police using better tactics, or even the effects of legalized abortion. And what can we expect from crime rates in the future? Franklin E. Zimring here takes on the experts, and counters with the first in-depth portrait of the decline and its true significance.

In this comprehensive study, Jean-Paul Brodeur examines the diversity of the policing web. The study also includes a consideration of military policing both when compatible with the values of democracy and when in opposition.

Braithwaite's argument against punitive justice systems and for restorative justice systems establishes that there are good theoretical and empirical grounds for anticipating that well designed restorative justice processes will restore victims, offenders, and communities better thanexisting criminal justice practices. Counterintuitively, he also shows that a restorative justice system may deter, incapacitate, and rehabilitate more effectively than a punitive system. This is particularly true when the restorative justice system is embedded in a responsive regulatoryframework that opts for deterrence only after restoration repeatedly fails, and incapacitation only after escalated deterrence fails...

The one, sure way that imprisonment prevents crime is by restraining offenders from committing crimes while they are locked up. Called "incapacitation" by experts in criminology, this effect has become the dominant justification for imprisonment in the United States, where well over a million persons are currently in jails and prisons, and public figures who want to appear tough on crime periodically urge that we throw away the key. How useful is the modern prison in restraining crime, and at what cost? How much do we really know about incapacitation and its effectiveness? This book is the first comprehensive assessment of incapacitation. Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins show the increasing reliance on restraint to justify imprisonment, analyze the existing theories on incapacitation's effects, assess the current empirical research, report a new study, and explore the links between what is known about incapacitation and what it tells us about our criminal justice policy. An insightful evaluation of a pressing policy issue, Incapacitation is a vital contribution to the current debates on our criminal justice system.

"Drawing on the latest evidence, Saving Children from a Life of Crime is the first book to assess the early causes of offending and what works best to prevent it. Preschool intellectual enrichment, child skills training, parent management training, and home visiting programs are among the most effective early prevention programs. Criminologists David P. Farrington and Brandon C. Welsh also outline a policy strategy - early prevention - that uses this current research knowledge and brings into sharper focus what America's national crime-fighting priority ought to be."--Jacket.