[PDF] When Brute Force Fails eBook

Author : Mark A. R. Kleiman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 36,39 MB
Release : 2009-08-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1400831261

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Cost-effective methods for improving crime control in America Since the crime explosion of the 1960s, the prison population in the United States has multiplied fivefold, to one prisoner for every hundred adults—a rate unprecedented in American history and unmatched anywhere in the world. Even as the prisoner head count continues to rise, crime has stopped falling, and poor people and minorities still bear the brunt of both crime and punishment. When Brute Force Fails explains how we got into the current trap and how we can get out of it: to cut both crime and the prison population in half within a decade. Mark Kleiman demonstrates that simply locking up more people for lengthier terms is no longer a workable crime-control strategy. But, says Kleiman, there has been a revolution—largely unnoticed by the press—in controlling crime by means other than brute-force incarceration: substituting swiftness and certainty of punishment for randomized severity, concentrating enforcement resources rather than dispersing them, communicating specific threats of punishment to specific offenders, and enforcing probation and parole conditions to make community corrections a genuine alternative to incarceration. As Kleiman shows, "zero tolerance" is nonsense: there are always more offenses than there is punishment capacity. But, it is possible—and essential—to create focused zero tolerance, by clearly specifying the rules and then delivering the promised sanctions every time the rules are broken. Brute-force crime control has been a costly mistake, both socially and financially. Now that we know how to do better, it would be immoral not to put that knowledge to work.

Author : Mark Kleiman
Publisher :
Page : 173 pages
File Size : 43,40 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Crime
ISBN :

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This study proposes a cost-effective crime-control strategy. Assuming that potential offenders base their actions on an evaluation of the costs and benefits of criminal activity, and effective criminal justice system can increase the "cost" side of the equation by making apprehension and punishment more likely. Perceptions that the risk of being detected, arrested, and punished is low will tend to produce an increased crime rate. As more offenses are addressed by finite criminal justice resources, the risk of detection and punishment declines even further, fueling more crime. This suggests the importance of concentrating enforcement resources by offense, offender, and time and place, as well as the direct communication of deterrent threats. Examples of this strategy are "broken windows" policing that focuses on overt signs of disorder, "cease-fire" strategies of gang interventions, and the "coerced abstinence" (testing-and sanctions) approach to controlling illicit drug use among probationers. These approaches involve targeted zero tolerance for certain crimes, with a clear communication of the offenses that will not be tolerated. Studies have shown that this strategy outperforms an attempt to spread finite criminal justice resources equally over all offenses and all types of offenders. Research has shown that the swiftness and certainty of punishment are more important in deterring crime than severity of punishment. This suggests that targeted zero tolerance combined with the effective communication of enforcement threats is a better use of resources than increasing the harshness of penalties, which typically means more costly incarceration trends.

Author : Emily Bazelon
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
Page : 450 pages
File Size : 24,5 MB
Release : 2020-05-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 039959003X

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A renowned journalist and legal commentator exposes the unchecked power of the prosecutor as a driving force in America’s mass incarceration crisis—and charts a way out. “An important, thoughtful, and thorough examination of criminal justice in America that speaks directly to how we reduce mass incarceration.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy “This harrowing, often enraging book is a hopeful one, as well, profiling innovative new approaches and the frontline advocates who champion them.”—Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS BOOK PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The New York Public Library • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly • Kirkus Reviews The American criminal justice system is supposed to be a contest between two equal adversaries, the prosecution and the defense, with judges ensuring a fair fight. That image of the law does not match the reality in the courtroom, however. Much of the time, it is prosecutors more than judges who control the outcome of a case, from choosing the charge to setting bail to determining the plea bargain. They often decide who goes free and who goes to prison, even who lives and who dies. In Charged, Emily Bazelon reveals how this kind of unchecked power is the underreported cause of enormous injustice—and the missing piece in the mass incarceration puzzle. Charged follows the story of two young people caught up in the criminal justice system: Kevin, a twenty-year-old in Brooklyn who picked up his friend’s gun as the cops burst in and was charged with a serious violent felony, and Noura, a teenage girl in Memphis indicted for the murder of her mother. Bazelon tracks both cases—from arrest and charging to trial and sentencing—and, with her trademark blend of deeply reported narrative, legal analysis, and investigative journalism, illustrates just how criminal prosecutions can go wrong and, more important, why they don’t have to. Bazelon also details the second chances they prosecutors can extend, if they choose, to Kevin and Noura and so many others. She follows a wave of reform-minded D.A.s who have been elected in some of our biggest cities, as well as in rural areas in every region of the country, put in office to do nothing less than reinvent how their job is done. If they succeed, they can point the country toward a different and profoundly better future.

Author : J. Robert Lilly
Publisher : SAGE Publications
Page : 691 pages
File Size : 35,49 MB
Release : 2018-11-06
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1506387284

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"The best organized and most comprehensive theory textbook to use for both graduate and undergraduate students. It provides historical context to the theories, and the authors make it easier for students to relate theory to reality." —Mirlinda Ndrecka, Ph.D., University of New Haven Updated Edition of a Best-Seller! Offering a rich introduction to how scholars analyze crime, Criminological Theory: Context and Consequences moves readers beyond a commonsense knowledge of crime to a deeper understanding of the importance of theory in shaping crime control policies. The Seventh Edition of the authors’ clear, accessible, and thoroughly revised text covers traditional and contemporary theory within a larger sociological and historical context. It includes new sources that assess the empirical status of the major theories, as well as updated coverage of crime control policies and their connection to criminological theory.

Author : Mark A.R. Kleiman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 40,70 MB
Release : 2011-07-13
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0199831386

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While there have always been norms and customs around the use of drugs, explicit public policies--regulations, taxes, and prohibitions--designed to control drug abuse are a more recent phenomenon. Those policies sometimes have terrible side-effects: most prominently the development of criminal enterprises dealing in forbidden (or untaxed) drugs and the use of the profits of drug-dealing to finance insurgency and terrorism. Neither a drug-free world nor a world of free drugs seems to be on offer, leaving citizens and officials to face the age-old problem: What are we going to do about drugs? In Drugs and Drug Policy, three noted authorities survey the subject with exceptional clarity, in this addition to the acclaimed series, What Everyone Needs to Know®. They begin, by defining "drugs," examining how they work in the brain, discussing the nature of addiction, and exploring the damage they do to users. The book moves on to policy, answering questions about legalization, the role of criminal prohibitions, and the relative legal tolerance for alcohol and tobacco. The authors then dissect the illicit trade, from street dealers to the flow of money to the effect of catching kingpins, and show the precise nature of the relationship between drugs and crime. They examine treatment, both its effectiveness and the role of public policy, and discuss the beneficial effects of some abusable substances. Finally they move outward to look at the role of drugs in our foreign policy, their relationship to terrorism, and the ugly politics that surround the issue. Crisp, clear, and comprehensive, this is a handy and up-to-date overview of one of the most pressing topics in today's world. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

Author : Tan Parker
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 10,84 MB
Release : 2020-09-29
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1684511755

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Making Government Work: A Conservative Agenda for the States is an updated version of the highly acclaimed 1994 original book. It serves as a modern-day guide for how as Americans we can move the states forward with common sense, conservative public policy initiatives to benefit the Nation as a whole. Making Government Work is a reminder that conservative reforms set the stage for unprecedented prosperity. The book contains a star-studded line up of some of today’s most powerful voices, including Nikki Haley, Chuck Norris, Rick Perry, Kathy Ireland, Rick Santorum, Chad Hennings, Jeb Bush, Dr. Art Laffer and Bob Woodson along with many more. "Making Government Work is for state government what the Contract with America was for the federal government. It is a sensible, fact based plan to create a better future through the application of sound principles." –Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House The author’s proceeds from the book will be donated to organizations that serve America’s veterans.