Choice # 2 Preventive Strategy: Attacking Crime at Its Roots (From Criminal Violence: What Direction Now for the War on Crime? P 13-17, 1992, Keith Melville and Betty Frecker, eds.)

• NCJ Number: 166124
• Author(s): K Melville; T Piazza
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 5 pages
• Corporate Author: Public Agenda
• Sale Source: Kendall/ Hunt Publishing Co; National Issues Forums
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Social roots of crime should be recognized in crime control policies, particularly since the correctional system does little to get offenders back on the right track.

Abstract

Advocates of this perspective see crime as a social problem in the deepest sense of the term. In many instances, people resort to crime due to harsh inequalities or because they cannot find decent jobs. Understood from this perspective, the crime problem requires an entirely different solution than the one advocated by those who focus on efforts to deter crime through law enforcement and criminal sanctions. Rather than following the principle of defining punishment to fit the crime, sentencing should be tailored to increase the likelihood that individuals emerge from the correctional system capable of leading productive lives. Recognizing that poverty, lack of adequate jobs, and lack of public assistance for troubled families contribute to high crime rates, crime prevention should emphasize expanded opportunities and more resources should be spent on dealing with the social roots of crime rather than on the correctional system. Deleterious social trends should be reversed, the correctional system should be reformed, and sentencing options should be expanded to provide alternatives to prison terms. Criticisms of the "social engineering" approach to crime prevention are noted. 1 photograph