Public Agenda Issue Guide: Crime

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ON THE AGENDA

You Can't Do It Alone: A New Guide to Creating Sustainable Change in Education Reform

Allison Rizzolo
Jan 24, 2012

Far too often, throughout our work in the education field, we've seen even the most earnest and promising ideas from experts and reformers for improving schools and ramping up student learning met with confusion, anxiety or even anger from teachers, parents, students or community members.

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Community Conversations: Working together to improve student success

Allison Rizzolo
Oct 20, 2011

The guest list for a community conversation in Coolidge, Arizona two weeks ago included small business owners, faculty and administration of colleges and universities, students, K-12 teachers and principals, representatives from local community-based organizations and even the chief of police. It was an impressively diverse group gathering to talk to about how to improve the success and completion rates of college and university students in their community.

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Press Releases

OVERVIEW

Crime

The Issue at a Glance

Violent crime skyrocketed in the U.S starting in the late 1960s, a trend that continued into the early 1990s. It's no wonder that crime has consistently been one of the public's major concerns over the past three decades.

But since the mid-1990s, there has been a dramatic drop in crime against both people and property.

GET THE FACTS

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CONSIDER THE CHOICES

Getting Tougher with Offenders

Getting to the Roots of Violent Crime

Taking Rehabilitation Seriously

The underlying problem is that American society is too lenient with violent criminals, thereby encouraging lawlessness. Serious crimes deserve serious punishment, no matter who commits them. Whether criminals are youths or adults and whether the crime is a first offense or a subsequent offense it must be punished unequivocally. The most promising solution is to get tougher with all criminals, to step up enforcement efforts, impose longer jail and prison sentences, and build more prisons.
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The United States has a serious crime problem because it is a harsh society. Unless we recognize corrosive social and economic forces that lead to criminality and take serious measures to address the causes of crime, we are unlikely to lower the rate of violent crime. Expanded efforts must be made to deal with underlying causes such as drug addiction and a lack of skills needed for gainful employment.
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As a nation, we have relied increasingly on harsh sentences and incarceration as the punishment of choice for most offenders. What we have chosen to overlook is that most offenders emerge from prison more dangerous than they were before. While taking various measures to protect public safety, we have to get serious about rehabilitating criminals, and choosing alternatives to incarceration that prepare offenders to reenter society as law-abiding citizens. With youthful criminals especially, the justice system must emphasize rehabilitation.
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