The book cites a rich variety of prior research. It explicitly rejects looking at organizational characteristics of the principal sponsoring organizations. Its focus on the divergence between national and local politicians leaves almost totally ignored the role of state government. The legal structure of sentencing, the definitions of crimes and the penalties associated with them, and the capacity of the prison system, all important in shaping outcomes, depend on decisions made at the state level. The failure to look at state level politics and policies and how the politics of street crime affect them constitutes a major conceptual weakness.
Problems also exist in the analysis of the data.
The analysis of differences in prosecutors' policies looks at the percentage distribution of various sexual assault charges, but fails to inquire into why the total number of prosecutions for one was 281 and for the other 785. In fact, his final conclusions are not clear to me regarding the degree to which local politics and opinion shaped policy in the criminal justice system. I also am confused about the extent to which he qualifies his generalizations based on the results of his re- search in Cedar City. Despite the many serious problems with the conceptualization and implementation of the empirical portion of the research reported in this book, it makes a useful contribution to our general understanding Page 111 follows of the politics of crime in America. Empirically researching this issue is devilishly difficult.