Amazon.com description: Product Description: The number one issue of concern to Americans today is predatory crime, and we are pouring billions of dollars into programs designed to combat its threat. But how have these measures succeeded - or failed - in fighting crime? Now, Crime provides the authoritative evidence we need to understand the consequences of our policy choices. In one volume, preeminent criminologists Wilson and Petersilia have assembled leading experts from a variety of disciplines, philosophies, and political viewpoints for the most important evaluation of crime prevention and control strategies in more than a decade.
Crime systematically grapples with the most persistent and controversial questions in the study of crime and violence: Why do some people become chronic, ungovernable criminals? Can gun control laws reduce violent crime? Does televised violence cause real violence? Do community alternatives to prison make matters better or worse? All the central issues in today's crime debate are covered in this book, including the effects of biomedical, family, neighborhood, and economic factors on criminality; how prosecutors and judges deal with offenders; the special problem of juvenile crime and gangs; the growth in prison populations and its effects - and much more. Many of the policies now being implemented do not reflect the current state of knowledge about what works and what doesn't in crime control. Crime explores reality-based alternatives that have the potential to restore the confidence in public safety that is essential to a strong civil society.