Crime Controversy - Avoiding Realities

• NCJ Number: 86553
• Journal: Vanderbilt Law Review Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: (April 1982) Pages: 487-499
• Author(s): D L Bazelon
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Speech delivered as the Keynote Address at the Symposium held at Vanderbilt University, February 12, 1982

Annotation

This keynote address first argues that any responsible approach to the crime problem must focus on violent street offenders who usually come from the bottom of the socioeconomic scale and then examines the costs of two long-term solutions -- massive incarceration and an attack on the root cause of crime.

Abstract

Many national leaders, including President Reagan, have endorsed 'get tough' measures to stop the increasing crime rates and fear of crime. Most proposals, however, mask the painful facts and difficult choices the United States must make before it can meaningfully address these problems. Only one type of crime -- violent street crime -produces this fear and public concern. While the causes of violent street crime are complex and not completely understood, judicial experience and empirical evidence both show that most defendants prosecuted for violent crimes are born into families struggling to survive or have no families, are raised in overcrowded and deteriorating housing, and lack adequate health care or educational opportunities. With nothing to preserve and nothing to lose, they turn to crime for economic survival and excitement. In addition, the prison population is not disproportionately black and young. The President has ignored these realities, and indeed it is truly amazing that so many Americans accept their deprived lot without striking out. Short-term policies of changing legal procedures and constructing new prisons are not likely to affect the violent crime rate significantly. For example, the concept of preventive detention rests on the questionable assumption that dangerousness can be predicted accurately. Moreover, in States where tougher sentencing policies have increased prison populations reported crime has continued to rise. One long-range alternative is swift and certain punishment for criminals, but this would be extremely costly, would produce a regime akin to martial law, and is fundamentally inhumane. Another approach would consist of an effort to determine the basic causes and a commitment to eradicate them. The price of changing the relevant conditions may be too high, however, since this alternative could threaten values of individual autonomy, dignity, and privacy as well as jeopardize conventional social and economic beliefs. The article contains 42 footnotes. For related material, see NCJ 86552.