Crime - Softcover

Wilson, James Q.; Petersilia, Joan

4.43

7 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558154175 ISBN 13: 9781558154179

Publisher: Ics Pr, 1995

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The number one issue of concern to Americans today is predatory crime, and we are pouring billions of dollars into programs designed to combat its threat. But how have these measures succeeded - or failed - in fighting crime? Now, Crime provides the authoritative evidence we need to understand the consequences of our policy choices. In one volume, preeminent criminologists Wilson and Petersilia have assembled leading experts from a variety of disciplines, philosophies, and political viewpoints for the most important evaluation of crime prevention and control strategies in more than a decade.
Crime systematically grapples with the most persistent and controversial questions in the study of crime and violence: Why do some people become chronic, ungovernable criminals? Can gun control laws reduce violent crime? Does televised violence cause real violence? Do community alternatives to prison make matters better or worse? All the central issues in today's crime debate are covered in this book, including the effects of biomedical, family, neighborhood, and economic factors on criminality; how prosecutors and judges deal with offenders; the special problem of juvenile crime and gangs; the growth in prison populations and its effects - and much more. Many of the policies now being implemented do not reflect the current state of knowledge about what works and what doesn't in crime control. Crime explores reality-based alternatives that have the potential to restore the confidence in public safety that is essential to a strong civil society.

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From Library Journal:

A big book with a long history, Crime will become as essential as Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's The Bell Curve (Free Pr., 1994). In fact, those authors each contributed a chapter to Crime. The other contributors are authoritative scholars but not ones who arouse the same ideological furor. Every chapter presents an up-to-date review of scholarship in an area relating to crime, e.g., the psychology and biology of criminals, juvenile crime, family, schools, community, gangs, alcohol and drugs, gun control, the media, police, prosecution, corrections, and research and policy. Editor Wilson has written at least nine other books, one with Herrnstein (Crime and Human Nature, LJ 10/1/85), and volumes of articles. Twenty years ago in Thinking About Crime (LJ 4/1/75), he found the influence of social science research on public policymaking negligible?and the fault of the researchers. In Crime and Public Policy (1983), Wilson thought that the ivory tower and the field had moved closer together. In this "completely revised and updated" edition of his previous works, the consensus is that the identifiable solutions to identified problems have slim prospects of implementation. For criminology collections.?Janice Dunham, John Jay Coll. Lib., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Though its levels are dropping slightly, crime is so pervasive that most people know at least a friend or relative who has been the victim of a felony. Take your own measure of the truth of that claim while leafing through this compendium of inquiries into why crime seems so rampant and random and what can stop it. Couched in sociology's jargon (unfortunately), these 21 original articles contain insights into all relevant issues, from the source of criminality (is it inherited or acquired?) to the effectiveness of the zillions of preferred crime-control strategies. The tone setter is James Q. Wilson, the wide-ranging author and clarifier of nettlesome social issues. His review of crime studies concludes that only 6 percent of teenage boys commit half the predatory street crime, and, with the baby boomlet soon reaching its productive years, there will be "30,000 more muggers, killers, and thieves than we have now. Get ready." That scary warning sets the stage for the remaining experts' analyses, which run from prevention to punition. Massively footnoted, researchers more than browsers are likely to use this collection, but its survey of current knowledge assures the big libraries that even casual readers will find some scholarly revelation about this worrisome subject. Gilbert Taylor

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