Crime is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America (Studies in Crime and Public Policy) - Hardcover

Zimring, Franklin E.; Hawkins, Gordon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019511065X ISBN 13: 9780195110654

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Year after year, in poll after poll, crime tops the list of American anxieties. Indeed, crime is seen by many people as the number one problem in the United States, a threat to the quality of life unparalleled in any other developed country. Now two legal scholars, Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, have conducted intensive research on the question and have reached a startling conclusion--crime is not the problem. America's great problem, they argue, is lethal violence.
In Crime is Not the Problem, Zimring and Hawkins revolutionize the way we think about crime and violence--by forcing us to distinguish between crime and violence. The authors reveal that when we compare the United States to other industrialized nations, in most categories of nonviolent crime (burglary, theft, and other property offenses), American crime rates are comparable--even lower, in some cases. Moreover, this general trend holds true when we compare specific cities of roughly the same size (New York and London, Los Angeles and Sydney). As the authors show, crimes like burglary and theft are a part of modern urban life worldwide. Only when it comes to lethal violence does the United States outpace other Western nations, with homicide rates many, many times greater. Equally interesting, the authors find that most killings in America are unconnected to criminal activity (that is, more murders stem from arguments than from break-ins or muggings). But if high property-crime rates don't kill innocent victims in other countries, why are the risks so much greater that victims will be killed or maimed in the United States? And what can be done to bring the death rate from American violence down to tolerable levels? To address these questions, the authors take a hard look at what is believed about the causes of lethal violence. Here, too, the conventional wisdom about the causes of violence is subject to revision. The impact of television and movie violence on rates of homicide is wildly over-rated, as Zimring and Hawkins demonstrate with data from Europe and Japan. By contrast, it is hard to overestimate the importance of guns--used in 70% of all killings--in the distinctively high rates of deadly violence in America. Reducing lethal violence required different tactics than fighting a general war on crime, the authors conclude. They argue that traditional law and order, tough on crime campaigns blur the distinctions between lethal violence and other offenses, they argue. Lawmakers need to craft a sophisticated response that specifically addresses death dealing mayhem.
In Crime is Not the Problem, Zimring and Hawkins reshape the debate about crime in the United States, throwing sharp new light on old questions and suggesting new directions for public policy. By making the crucial distinction between lethal violence and crime in general, they clear the ground for a targeted, far more effective response to the real crisis in American society.

About this title

About the Author

About the Authors:
Franklin E. Zimring is the William F. Simon Professor of Law and Director of the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. Gordon Hawkins is Senior Fellow at the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.

Review

"Professors Zimring and Hawkins' brilliant analysis of violence in the United States offers unique insights into the dilemma. One can only hope that policy makers pay attention to the authors' pragmatic suggestions for innovative policies to diminish this singularly American problem."--Joseph
D. McNamara, former Police Chief, San Jose, California, and Research Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University

"Crime Is Not the Problem is a watershed in the analysis of what to do about crime and violence. At last, social science data from this country and abroad is drawn into policy recommendations of determinative importance to the prevention and punishment of violence. At last criminology grows
up."--Noval Morris, Professor Emeritus of Law and Criminology, University of Chicago

"This book demonstrates that America's truly phenomenal level of life-threatening violence is not closely related to its crime levels, its numbers of criminals, or even its volume of non-lethal violence. The authors reveal why wars on crime usually miss their mark, and they describe vastly
more promising paths for our nation to explore. The zenith of productive collaboration of Zimring and Hawkins,Crime Is Not the Problem is certain to become a landmark."--Albert W. Alschuler, Wilson-Dickinson Professor, the University of Chicago Law School

"This book cuts through the usual rhetoric to lay bare the real characteristics of lethal violence. It is essential reading for anyone attempting to develop effective public strategies for dealing with this very serious problem."--Peter Greenwood, Director, RAND Criminal Justice Program

"This book represents exactly the kind of clarity, vigor, and intelligence that the issues of crime and violence need and rarely get. On topic after topic--drug wars, deterrence, prison policy--there are important insights to be found in this study."--Lawrence M. Friedman, Marion Rice
Kirkwood Professor of Law, Stanford Law School Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

"This is the most important book written about guns and violence in the United States in years. Zimring and Hawkins up-end the conventional wisdom and make a compelling and utterly convincing argument that crime is not America's major problem, for our rates of crime are no higher than other
industrialized countries: Gun violence is the problem.--Deborah Leff, President, the Joyce Foundation

"Thoroughly documented; will stir debate."--Booklist

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 019511065X
• ISBN 13: 9780195110654
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288