Crime Is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America (Studies in Crime and Public Policy)
It is a mistake, urge the authors, director and fellow, respectively, of the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California at Berkeley, to conflate "crime" and "violence" as perhaps the most serious problem in the U.S. In most forms of nonviolent property crime, both nation-to-nation and city-to-city comparisons between the U.S. and other developed countries display remarkable similarities; only in terms of lethal violence (crimes that produce death or serious injury) is the U.S. four to eighteen times "ahead" of other nations--and it's lethal violence that generates widespread public fear. Zimring and Hawkins analyze those patterns; review causality studies with an eye to lethal violence, judging media violence less important and gun availability more central than conventional wisdom admits (illegal drugs are a factor, but the authors find them a contingent factor in lethal violence); and suggest changes in criminal law practice and adoption of multifaceted loss-prevention strategies to prevent and reduce the human cost of lethal violence. Thoroughly documented; will stir debate.Mary Carroll--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.