NCJ Number
179259
Journal
Forum Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: December 1998 Pages: 1-16
Date Published
1998
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article summarizes the findings and conclusions of the author's 1998 book "Losing Legitimacy," which argued that crime rates for the past 50 years have been closely related to the strength of social institutions and that changes in institutions are a plausible explanation for the shifts in postwar crime rates.
Abstract
The book was subtitled "Street Crime and the Decline of Social Institutions in America". The text notes that all types of street crime were at low levels in the 1940s and 1950s, skyrocketed in the 1960s and 1970s, and have finally leveled off in the 1980's and 1990s. Public trust in political institutions was probably at a higher level after the victory of the United States in World War II than at any other point in the century. However, the level of trust began to erode substantially in the late 1950s and 1960s as the civil rights movement exposed longstanding racial injustices and further erosion accompanied the divisive war in Vietnam, political scandals, and the rights-based revolution. Economic and family changes were equally dramatic. Policymakers turned to newer institutions by increasing spending on criminal justice, welfare, and education. The recent downturn in crime is also related to the strength of social institutions. These findings suggest both that the social institutions that guide humans are relatively fragile and that humans can change these institutions in ways that reduce the devastating impact of crime on individuals and societies. 9 references