Thank you for the reference Michael. I am organizing a long-term project
roughly called "the economic causes and consequences of violence: a
public health approach." The book will examine the public health issues
of family and intimate partner violence, youth violence, and suicide,
from a similar point of view. It will include sections on the economic
causes (influences) of violence, the economic costs of violence, and the
potential impact of violence prevention programs. I am currently working
on narrower aspects of this subject, i.e., filling in the pieces.
The criminal justice approach focuses on legally-defined crimal acts.
The public health approach uses more of an episode-of-illness (or
injury) classification. This can be a very important distinction
(especially to Marxists) when you have categories of violence not
defined as a crime.
Jeff
----------
From: Michael Perelman
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Fwd: Crime and Punishment 1999 (fwd)]
Date: Friday, March 20, 1998 12:02PM
Sid Shniad wrote:
> > H. Bruce Franklin review in the Guardian Weekly:
> > CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN AMERICA By Elliott Currie
> > Holt/Metropolitan. 230pp. US$23
> >
> > THIS IS a very unfashionable book. Elliott Currie does not believe
that
> > we need to build more and more prisons, impose longer sentences,
make
> > prisons as harsh as possible, eliminate educational opportunities
for
> > prisoners, reinstitute chain gangs, treat juvenile offenders as
adults,
> > and divert still more funds from social services to penal
institutions.
> > He clings to the old-fashioned notion that we should concentrate
more on
> > the prevention of crime. He even goes so far as to accept the
hopelessly
> > outdated idea that widespread poverty is the main cause of violent
> > crime. If all this were not antiquated enough, Currie also
evidently
> > assumes that rational argument based on scientific knowledge --
i.e.
> > reason and facts -- can change social policy. Even his prose style
is
> > anachronistic: earnest, free of jargon, lucid.
> >
> > When Currie, who has taught sociology and criminology at Yale and
> > Berkeley, advanced similar arguments in his 1985 volume Confronting
> > Crime, the New York Times reviewer noted that the "biggest
incarceration
> > binge in merican history" had increased the nation's prison
population
> > from fewer than 200,000 in 1970 to 454,000 by 1984. What may have
seemed
> > an astonishing number of inmates back in 1984 is dwarfed by the
current
> > prison population of 1.2 million, plus an additional half-a-million
> > people in local jails.
> >
> > The United States now has by far the largest prison system on the
planet.
> > There are more prisoners in California alone than in any other
country
> > in the world except China and Russia. The present U.S. rate of
> > incarceration is six times the global average, seven times that of
> > Europe, 14 times that of Japan, 23 times that of India. European
rates
> > of incarceration are consistently well below 100 per 100,000
population;
> > the rate of incarceration of African-American males is close to
4,000 per
> > 100,000.
> >
> > As Currie puts it in the present volume, "mass incarceration has
been
> > the most thoroughly implemented government social program of our
time,"
> > and we have thus been conducting a gigantic social "experiment,"
> > "testing the degree to which a modern industrial society can
maintain
> > public order through the threat of punishment."
> >
> > Has this experiment worked? Media attention has recently
highlighted the
> > falling rate of crime for the past four years. As Currie
demonstrates,
> > this decline has come during a period of unusually low unemployment
and
> > relative prosperity, actually bolstering his thesis that extreme
poverty
> > is the main cause of crime. Moreover, he notes that the crime rate
has
> > been falling only in relation to the extremely high levels of
1990-93.
> >
> > If we compare 1996 with 1984, the year cited in the review of
Currie's
> > earlier volume, we discover that the crime rate (according to the
FBI's
> > annual Crime Index) has actually risen 13 percent. The costs of this
> > social experiment are immense. As Currie points out, the money spent
on
> > prisons has been "taken from the parts of the public sector that
> > educate, train, socialize, treat, nurture, and house the population
--
> > particularly the children of the poor." Currie if anything
understates
> > the consequences elsewhere in the public sector. For example,
California
> > now spends more on prisons than on higher education. Crime And
Punishment
> > In America cogently debunks what Currie labels the "myths" that
rationalize
> > and legitimize the prison craze.
> >
> > The "myth of leniency" (the prevailing notion that criminals are
being let
> > off too easily or let out too soon) is shown to be based on phony
> > statistics, "unless we believe that . . . everyone convicted of an
offense
> > -- no matter how minor -- should be sent to jail or prison, and that
all
> > of those sent to prison should stay there for the rest of their
lives."
> > The "myth" that "prison works" ignores the soaring crime rates
during most
> > of the quarter-century of the incarceration experiment; it also
assumes
> > that the only alternative available to us has been doing nothing at
all
> > about crime.
> >
> > This leads to the parts of the book dearest to the author's heart:
> > alternatives to mass incarceration. With thorough documentation from
> > recent research, Currie describes a number of social programs that
have
> > indeed dramatically reduced rates of crime or recidivism, even among
> > groups of people generally considered beyond hope. Examples he gives
> > range from prenatal and preschool home visitation targeting child
abuse
> > through enriched schools for high-risk teenagers to successful
community
> > programs for youths who already have multiple arrests. The modest
costs
> > of these programs, together with their tangible benefits, offer a
stark
> > contrast to the enormously expensive mass incarceration model, with
all
> > its attendant social devastation.
> >
> > This is a book that ought to be read by anyone concerned about crime
and
> > punishment in America [or CANADA}, especially our political leaders
and
> > representatives.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 916-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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