Politics, Public Policy, and Street Crime

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 539, S. 155-168

Abstract

Explains what is problematic about the indiscriminately punitive response to street crime in the US, & explores the political forces driving these self-defeating policies. What emerges is an understanding of the politics of street crime that is rooted less in the fear of crime than in a variety of anxieties that transcend street crime but are affectively related to it. Criminals provide a convenient target for the anger that is widely felt, but is not quite appropriate to express, with respect to unwelcome changes in race relations, employment opportunities, homelessness, etc. To serve their own distinct but convergent purposes, the media, the public, & the politicians all contribute to the perpetuation of a perverse approach to controlling street crime. 1 Table, 1 Figure. Adapted from the source document.