Violent crime in America shot up sharply in the mid-1980s and continued to climb until 1991, after which something unprecedented occurred. The crime level declined to a level not seen since the 1960s. This revised edition of The Crime Drop in America focuses first on the dramatic drop in crime rates in America in the 1990s, and then, in a new epilogue, on the patterns since 2000. The separate chapters written by distinguished experts cover the many factors affecting crime rates: policing, incarceration, drug markets, gun control, economics, and demographics. Detailed analyses emphasize the mutual effects of changes in crack markets, a major focus of youth violence, and the drop in rates of violence following decline in demand for crack. The contrasts between the crime-drop period of the 1990s and the period since 2000 are explored in the new epilogue, which also reviews major new developments in thinking about the causes and control of crime.
Author(s): Alfred Blumstein, Joel Wallman
Series: Cambridge studies in criminology
Edition: Rev. ed
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2006
Language: English
Commentary: 69237
Pages: 375
City: New York
Half-title......Page 2
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 6
Copyright......Page 7
Contents......Page 8
Contributors......Page 10
CHAPTER ONE The Recent Rise and Fall of American Violence......Page 16
A Four-Decade Backdrop......Page 18
The Elements of the Crime Drop......Page 19
The Role of Prisons......Page 20
The Steady Decline of Adult Violence......Page 21
The Role of Policing......Page 23
The Role of Economic Opportunity......Page 24
The Role of Demography......Page 25
The Past, Present, and Future of U.S. Violence......Page 26
Acknowledgment......Page 27
The Changing Rates of Violence in the U.S.......Page 28
Measuring Violence......Page 29
Differences Across Age Groups......Page 35
Changing Demographic Composition......Page 43
The Role of Handguns......Page 44
The Big Cities......Page 50
Conclusion......Page 54
Acknowledgments......Page 55
Notes......Page 56
References......Page 58
The Importance of Guns in Violence......Page 60
The 1980s to 1993: Rates of Gun Violence Increasing......Page 62
People......Page 63
1993 to the Present: Rates of Gun Violence Decreasing......Page 82
Interventions......Page 84
Focusing on Demand and Use......Page 85
Focusing on Supply......Page 88
Gun Bans......Page 93
Interventions of Chiefly Symbolic Value......Page 100
References......Page 103
Introduction......Page 112
Previous Findings and the Crime Drop......Page 113
Why Prisons May Have Become More Effective......Page 123
Did Prisons Become More Effective?......Page 134
Conclusion......Page 138
Notes......Page 140
References......Page 141
CHAPTER FIVE Patterns in Adult Homicide: 1980–1995......Page 145
Age Structure and Homicide......Page 146
Sex, Race, and Victim-Offender Relationship......Page 150
The Effect of Incarceration Growth on the Homicide Decline......Page 158
Declining Domesticity and the Drop in Intimate Partner Homicide......Page 167
The Civilizing Process and the Decline in Adult Homicide......Page 172
Notes......Page 174
References......Page 176
Introduction......Page 179
A Social History of Drug Use, Drug Markets, and Violence......Page 185
Conclusion......Page 211
References......Page 213
CHAPTER SEVEN Have Changes in Policing Reduced Violent Crime? An Assessment of the Evidence......Page 222
Part One: Generic Changes in American Policing......Page 223
Part Two: Focusing Police on Repeat Places and People......Page 243
Part Three: Lessons for Policing......Page 260
Acknowledgments......Page 266
Notes......Page 267
References......Page 268
CHAPTER EIGHT An Economic Model of Recent Trends in Violence......Page 281
The Model......Page 283
Explaining the Rise in Violence......Page 290
Explaining the Fall in Violence......Page 292
The Distribution of Violence by Age, Race, and Space......Page 298
References......Page 301
CHAPTER NINE Demographics and U.S. Homicide......Page 303
Violent Crime Trends and Demography......Page 304
Notes......Page 328
References......Page 329
Facts......Page 334
Factors......Page 338
Guns......Page 339
Prisons......Page 343
Drugs......Page 345
Police......Page 349
Economics......Page 352
Demographics......Page 354
Conclusion......Page 358
References......Page 359
Index......Page 364
