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Controlling Crime

Strategies and Tradeoffs

 Criminal justice expenditures have more than doubled since the 1980s, dramatically increasing costs to the public. With state and local revenue shortfalls resulting from the recent recession, the question of whether crime control can be accomplished either with fewer resources or by investing those resources in areas other than the criminal justice system is all the more relevant.

Controlling Crime considers alternative ways to reduce crime that do not sacrifice public safety. Among the topics considered here are criminal justice system reform, social policy, and government policies affecting alcohol abuse, drugs, and private crime prevention. Particular attention is paid to the respective roles of both the private sector and government agencies. Through a broad conceptual framework and a careful review of the relevant literature, this volume provides insight into the important trends and patterns of some of the interventions that may be effective in reducing crime.

720 pages | 55 line drawings, 41 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2011

National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report

Economics and Business: Economics--Urban and Regional

Political Science: Public Policy

Sociology: Criminology, Delinquency, Social Control

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Economical Crime Control
Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig

I. Criminal Justice Reform
1. The Deterrent Effect of Imprisonment
Steven N. Durlauf and Daniel S. Nagin
2. Institutional Requirements for Effective Imposition of Fines
Anne Morrison Piehl and Geoffrey Williams
Comment: David Alan Sklansky
3. If Drug Treatment Works So Well, Why Are So Many Drug Users in Prison?
Harold Pollack, Peter Reuter, and Eric Sevigny
Comment: Jonathan P. Caulkins
4. Mental Health Treatment and Criminal Justice Outcomes
Richard G. Frank and Thomas G. McGuire
Comment: Jeffrey Swanson

II. Regulation of Criminal Opportunities and Criminogenic Commodities
5. Rethinking America’s Illegal Drug Policy
John J. Donohue III, Benjamin Ewing, and David Peloquin
Comment: Robert J. MacCoun
6. Alcohol Regulation and Crime
Christopher Carpenter and Carlos Dobkin
7. The Role of Private Action in Controlling Crime
Philip J. Cook and John MacDonald

III. Social Policy
8. Decreasing Delinquency, Criminal Behavior, and Recidivism by Intervening on Psychological Factors other than Cognitive Ability: A Review of the Intervention Literature
Patrick L. Hill, Brent W. Roberts,
Jeffrey T. Grogger, Jonathan Guryan, and Karen Sixkiller
Comment: Kenneth A. Dodge
9. Family Income, Neighborhood Poverty, and Crime
Sara B. Heller, Brian A. Jacob, and Jens Ludwig
Comment: Ilyana Kuziemko
10. Education Policy and Crime
Lance Lochner
Comment: Justin McCrary
11. Improving Employment Prospects for Former Prison Inmates: Challenges and Policy
Steven Raphael
Comment: Jeffrey Smith
12. Crime and the Family: Lessons from Teenage Childbearing
Seth G. Sanders
Comment: Terrie E. Moffitt and Stephen A. Ross

Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index

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