Expenditures on law enforcement have quadrupled since 1980. Law enforcement has become a primary government response to social and economic stress. Prison costs are rising faster than any other category of state spending. Increases in prison spending average twice as high as increases in education spending. During this time, crime rates were relatively stable.
People use the crime issue for personal, financial or political gain.
They play on people's desire for safety to sell them things they do not need. The crime scares of recent years have been a fiction. The current appearance of solving the crime problem is nothing more than politicians heightening people' s fears in order to assuage them. Crime rates have been essentially stable since the 1970's. Most offenders are not dangerous.