Crime Matters
In a span of a little more than 30 years, “America first embraced punishment levels lower than Sweden’s, then built a justice system more punitive than Russia’s.”
Mr. Stuntz readily acknowledges what many legal scholars do not: America’s current lock-’em-up philosophy has dramatically helped to reduce urban crime. Since 1991, violent-crime rates have declined roughly a third nationwide and as much as two-thirds in a few cities (New York among them).
From a review of The Collapse of American Criminal Justice by William J. Stuntz.
Imprisonment works.
Community policing models have adopted the broken windows by cracking down on petty crime before it becomes major crime.