NCJ Number
145064
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 39 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1993) Pages: 425- 446
Date Published
1993
Length
22 pages
Annotation
The authors argue that the right-wing, law-and-order- based criminal justice policies that have tended to prevail in modern times, have paradoxically maintained the causes of crime.
Abstract
The Federal Government's "war on drugs," for instance, aggravates the drug problem. By repressing the legitimate sale of drugs, it forces drug users into the illegal market, where prices are inflated far beyond actual costs. The allure of huge profits not only escalates the violence drug traffickers are willing to go through, but it also guarantees that, no matter how many are imprisoned or killed, new criminal entrepreneurs will take their place. Decriminalization of drugs, coupled with changes in economic and communal life, would help reduce this cycle. An emphasis on therapeutic and educational programs for drug users would create jobs and would have crime prevention effects. The authors recommend that the Clinton Administration and Federal agencies should assemble a "New Deal" that includes massive reforms to the health care system and policies that foster entry-level jobs, jobs with multiplier effects, and industrial expansion. 10 endnotes and 31 references