This book examines the US crime problem and the resulting policies as a political and cultural issue. It draws on a wide range of scholarship, including the representation of crime in political discourse, the mass media, and public opinion. It proposes that the punitive turn in crime policy is not just the result of a worsening crime problem or an increasingly fearful and vengeful public, but reflects efforts by national politicians to shift public policy on a variety of social problems toward harsher, more repressive solutions. (view table of contents)

Product Description: Most Americans are not aware that the US prison population has tripled over the past two decades, nor that the US has the highest rate of incarceration in the industrialized world. Despite these facts, politicians from across the ideological spectrum continue to campaign on "law and order" platforms and to propose "three strikes"--and even "two strikes"--sentencing laws...read more