Product Description: Crime in the streets has remained consistently among the most conspicuous aspects of the American political landscape. Sasson argues that the significance of our national pre-occupation with the issue depends on how it is constructed or “framed” in the mass media and in everyday conversation...read more

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)

In The New American Zionism, Theodore Sasson challenges the conventional view of waning American Jewish support for Israel. Instead, he shows that we are in the midst of a shift from a "mobilization" approach, which first emerged with the new state and focused on supporting Israel through big, centralized organizations, to an "engagement" approach marked by direct and personal relations with the Jewish state.    Today, growing numbers of American Jews travel to Israel, consume Israeli news and culture, and focus their philanthropy and lobbying in line with their personal political viewpoints. As a result, American Jews find Israel more personally meaningful than ever before. Yet, at the same time, their ability to impact policy has diminished as they no longer speak with a unified voice.