Public Support for Early Intervention Programs: Implications for a Progressive Policy Agenda

Since the early 1970s, criminologists have embraced the view that only broader social justice will reduce crime—a stance that has largely surrendered criminal justice policy to conservatives. Emerging research shows, however, that early intervention programs prevent crime and are cost effective. Based on a 1997 survey of Tennessee respondents, the article reports further that the public supports early intervention strongly and prefers it to incarceration as a strategy to reduce offending. Thus, the article contends that early intervention programs, which extend services to at-risk children and families, comprise an important progressive policy initiative that criminologists and policy makers should support.