Abstract
The United States ranks Number 1 in terms of incarcerating its own people and has the highest number of prison inmates in the world. At the end of 2010, the U.S. prison population was more than 2.4 million; and many were nonviolent, nonserious, and drug offenders. Keeping a huge number of people in prison is very costly. American taxpayers spent about $70 billion in 2006 in direct costs for imprisonment. Even though the crime rate has been in decline for last decade, and research shows that imprisonment does not help reduce the crime rate, the prison population has substantially increased. Authors in this edited book look at the alternatives of incarceration, which are more cost-effective than prison, and at the same time helps reduce the number of crimes, as well as number of offenders. This book presents an economic analysis of many alternative crime control and prevention strategies. The authors argue that the prevention of crime is less costly than fighting crime by incarcerating people after they commit crime. As Cook and Ludwig point out in their introduction, “more crime control could be accomplished with fewer resources . . . .it is important to at least understand the tradeoff between retribution and crime prevention” (p. 2).
The authors offer cost-benefit analysis of different strategies not only in terms of crime reduction; they also look into the other positive outcomes of these programs. Many authors argue that both “go soft” and “get tough” approaches need to be combined together to achieve the goal of crime reduction. Articles in the book also suggest that criminal behavior must be explained using both micro and macro perspectives and any effective strategy should consider both contexts.
There are 13 chapters in the book, including the introduction titled “Economical Crime Control,” written by two of the editors. In their editorial piece, the authors highlight the current state of criminal justice enterprise, focusing on imprisonment and its alternatives. They point out that preventing crime is an economically more viable option of crime reduction than incarceration. Prevention of crime requires shifting resources from traditional criminal justice agencies, such as corrections, to other social agencies, such as school and neighborhood. For example, the authors argue that “diverting $12 billion from long prison sentences to addressing social cognitive skill deficit among high-risk youth could net social benefits on the order of $ 70 billion per year” (p. 34). The prevention of crime also requires a critical analysis of many of the current criminal justice policies, such as drug and mental health policies, and reforming them. According to Cook and Ludwig, “There is good reason to believe that the CJS is effective in reducing crime, and also that it is inefficient, in the sense that same crime reduction effect could be accomplished with fewer resources if appropriate reforms were adopted” (p. 14). This argument is resonated in other chapters of the book.
The chapters in the book are grouped under three broad topics: Criminal Justice Reform, Regulations of Criminal Opportunities and Criminogenic Commodities, and Social Policies. Each chapter focuses on a particular criminal justice policy and the title of each chapter illustrates the diverse nature of issues and topics covered in the book. The chapters included in Criminal Justice reform are the “Deterrent Effect of Imprisonment,” “Institutional Requirements for Effective Imposition of Fine,” “If Drug Treatment Works so Well, Why are so Many Drug Users in Prison,” and “Mental Health Treatment and Criminal Justice Outcomes.” The chapters in second part of the book look into how changes in regulatory policy involving criminogenic commodities can contribute to crime reduction. The chapters are “Rethinking America’s Illegal Drug Policy,” “Alcohol Regulation and Crime,” and “The Role of Private Action in Controlling Crime.” The last section of the book deals with the context-based crime prevention policies that focus on minimizing the risk factors and increasing the protective factors. The chapters are “Decreasing Delinquency, Criminal Behavior, and Recidivism by Intervening on Psychological Factors other than Cognitive Ability: A Review of the Intervention Literature,” “Family Income, Neighborhood Poverty, and Crime,” “Education Policy and Crime,” “Improving Employment Prospects for Former Prison Inmates: Challenges and Policy,” and “Crime and the Family: Lesson from Teenage Childbearing.”
Most of the chapters provide a critical review of literature on the effectiveness of programs dealing with a crime issue (what works, what does not, and what is promising), pros and cons of a particular policy, presents mathematical equation to show its cost-effectiveness, and present the findings of research conducted by the authors on cost-effective alternatives. The authors also propose alternative crime reduction policies and give mathematical explanations on how these alternatives may impact the offenders and offending. However, they remind us that no research-based conclusion can be made about some of these programs’ true cost-effectiveness, as they have not been implemented yet. For example, based on the facts from other countries, in Chapter 5, Donohue, Ewing, and Peloquin discuss how legalizing some illegal drugs, such as marijuana, may result in less drug-related crime, while generating tax revenue. At the same time, they point out that the consequences are unknown as the policy is not fully utilized in the United States. Nine of the chapters are followed by a commentary that sheds more light on the importance of the issues, highlights the major findings, offers alternative thoughts, and calls for more research.
The benefit–cost ratio analysis presented in this book is very unique. It puts many of our current crime reduction/fighting policies into economic perspectives and makes us think why we are spending so much money in prison- and retribution-oriented punishment when there are many alternatives that are much more cost effective. This book is an eye opening reading for politicians and policy makers who are more inclined to invest more money in prison as a way to reduce crime. This is also a must read for practitioners and academics who see a value in alternative methods of crime prevention. This is a wonderful addition to the texts in graduate-level policy classes.