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Critical Criminal Justice Issues U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice CriticalCritical CriminalCriminal JusticeJustice IssuesIssues TaskTask ForceForce ReportsReports FromFrom thethe AmericanAmerican SocietySociety ofof CriminologyCriminology toto AttorneyAttorney GeneralGeneral JanetJanet RenoReno FOREWORD There is a discernible urgency to the crime issue. Crime and the fear of crime rank as the most important issues in public opinion polls. Some communities resemble war zones where gunshots ring out every night. Other cities struggle to create islands of civility amid threats to public order posed by low-level criminal behavior that eludes traditional measures. Appropriately, public policymakers and administrators in the criminal justice system are responding to the issue of crime in all its complexity. Every aspect of the infrastructure of our traditional criminal justice policy is undergo- ing fundamental rethinking. Our approaches to policing, adjudication, sentencing, imprisonment, and community corrections are changing in significant ways. Indeed, communities that are suffering from crime are changing their interactions with the agencies of the criminal justice system as the concepts of community policing, community prosecution, and community justice take on real meaning in cities and towns around the country. This combination—a sense of urgency on the part of the public and a rapidly changing policy response—creates a compelling need for policy-relevant research. When Attorney General Janet Reno addressed the American Society of Criminology at its annual meeting in November 1994, she challenged Society members to translate their re- search findings into recommendations that would benefit the practitioners and policymakers who confront the issues of crime and justice. The reports presented in these pages are the response to that challenge. The Society established 12 task forces in different areas of research activity and asked the task force members to distill their research findings into policy recommendations that would advance the important public debate now under way in the Nation. In this regard, the members of the Society have performed a valuable public service. We thank Dr. Freda Adler, then-president of the Society, and the Society’s members for this remarkable contribution to improving our understanding of the issues of crime and the challenge of justice. Jeremy Travis Director National Institute of Justice Critical Criminal Justice Issues Task Force Reports From the American Society of Criminology i NCJ 158837 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword ...................................................................................................................................... Inside Front Cover Preface ..................................................................................................................................................................... v Early Prevention of and Intervention for Delinquency and Related Problem Behavior.......................................... 1 Youth Violence....................................................................................................................................................... 13 A New Vision for Inner-City Schools .................................................................................................................... 23 Drug Policy Options: Lessons From Three Epidemics ......................................................................................... 33 Drugs and the Community ..................................................................................................................................... 47 Violence Against Women: Overview ..................................................................................................................... 61 Domestic and International Organized Crime ....................................................................................................... 73 Designing Out Crime ............................................................................................................................................. 85 The State of the Police ........................................................................................................................................... 95 A Crime Control Rationale for Reinvesting in Community Corrections ............................................................ 105 Three-Strikes Legislation: Prevalence and Definitions ....................................................................................... 121 American Crime Problems From a Global Perspective ....................................................................................... 135 iii PREFACE At the 1994 American Society of Criminology (ASC) annual meeting, Attorney General Janet Reno appealed to the assembled scholars of criminology for their urgent assistance in dealing with some of the major crime and criminal justice issues facing the Nation and, hence, the Administration. Her address to the ASC identified 12 such issues. On the day following her appeal to us, the ASC National Policy Committee met and formed 12 corresponding task forces. The chairs of these task forces had to find their expert collaborators within the shortest span of time. Within a matter of a few months, the task forces had completed their reports, and they were submitted to Attorney General Reno. In my submission I made it clear that: 1. The reports were those of groups of individual ASC members. They do not represent any official position of the ASC. 2. The Attorney General did not ask us for heavily documented research papers, but rather for the essence of knowledge on the various subjects. 3. The reports cover agreements and controversies on each of these issues, be they supportive or not of currently existing governmental policies or programs. The Attorney General read the reports with the greatest attention, convened a meeting of task force chairs at her office, and probed a variety of findings (and policy implications) with the greatest care. In her concluding remarks she expressed her gratitude to the task forces and her great satisfaction with our willingness to respond so quickly, so thoroughly, and so helpfully. Many of the findings have already found their way into the policymaking process; others are likely to follow the same path. The Attorney General also noted with great interest that our recent questionnaire—distributed to our entire mem- bership—revealed that a large number of our members are engaged in policy-relevant research and are willing to contribute to the policymaking process. (She asked for a followup report on the ASC Survey of Members’ Research.) This volume includes summaries as well as the text of all 12 task force reports. The summaries were prepared by Aspen Systems Corporation, under the direction of the National Institute of Justice. My thanks go to Aspen for superbly summarizing the reports. I wish to extend my thanks to all members who so willingly devoted their time and effort—pro bono—to this unprecedented service for the cause of enlightened, humane, and effective criminal justice policy. My gratitude also goes to Attorney General Reno for offering us the opportunity to serve. Freda Adler President, 1994–1995 American Society of Criminology v FOREWORD There is a discernible urgency to the crime issue. Crime and the fear of crime rank as the most important issues in public opinion polls. Some communities resemble war zones where gunshots ring out every night. Other cities struggle to create islands of civility amid threats to public order posed by low-level criminal behavior that eludes traditional measures. Appropriately, public policymakers and administrators in the criminal justice system are responding to the issue of crime in all its complexity. Every aspect of the infrastructure of our traditional criminal justice policy is undergo- ing fundamental rethinking. Our approaches to policing, adjudication, sentencing, imprisonment, and community corrections are changing in significant ways. Indeed, communities that are suffering from crime are changing their interactions with the agencies of the criminal justice system as the concepts of community policing, community prosecution, and community justice take on real meaning in cities and towns around the country. This combination—a sense of urgency on the part of the public and a rapidly changing policy response—creates a compelling need for policy-relevant research. When Attorney General Janet Reno addressed the American Society of Criminology at its annual meeting in November 1994, she challenged Society members to translate their re- search findings into recommendations that would benefit the practitioners and policymakers who confront the issues of crime and justice. The reports presented in these pages are the response to that challenge. The Society established 12 task forces in different areas of research activity and asked the task force members to distill their research findings into policy recommendations that would advance the important public debate now under way in the Nation. In this regard, the members of the Society have performed a valuable public service. We thank Dr. Freda Adler, President of the Society, and the Society’s members for this remarkable contribution to improving our understanding of the issues of crime and the challenge of justice. Jeremy Travis Director National Institute of Justice vii CRITICAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES Early Prevention
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