Top criminologists explain the reasons for the drop in violent crime in America.

Many theories--from the routine to the bizarre--have been offered up to explain the crime decline of the 1990s. Was it record levels of imprisonment? An abatement of the crack cocaine epidemic? More police using better tactics? Or even the effects of legalized abortion? And what can we expect from crime rates in the future? Franklin E. Zimring here takes on the experts, and counters with the first in-depth portrait of the decline and its true significance. The major lesson from the 1990s is that relatively superficial changes in the character of urban life can be associated with up to 75% drops in the crime rate. Crime can drop even if there is no major change in the population, the economy or the schools. Offering the most reliable data available, Zimring documents the decline as the longest and largest since World War II. It ranges across both violent and non-violent offenses, all regions, and every demographic. All Americans, whether they live in cities or suburbs, whether rich or poor, are safer today. Casting a critical and unerring eye on current explanations, this book demonstrates that both long-standing theories of crime prevention and recently generated theories fall far short of explaining the 1990s drop. A careful study of Canadian crime trends reveals that imprisonment and economic factors may not have played the role in the U.S. crime drop that many have suggested. There was no magic bullet but instead a combination of factors working in concert rather than a single cause that produced the decline. Further--and happily for future progress, it is clear that declines in the crime rate do not require fundamental social or structural changes. Smaller shifts in policy can make large differences. The significant reductions in crime rates, especially in New York, where crime dropped twice the national average, suggests that there is room for other cities to repeat this astounding success. In this definitive look at the great American crime decline, Franklin E. Zimring finds no pat answers but evidence that even lower crime rates might be in store.

This text provides an in-depth portrait of the crime decline in the 1990s and its true significance. Offering the most reliable data available, Franklin E. Zimring documents the decline and casts a critical and unerring eye on current explanations.

Drawing on new studies from major European countries and Australia, this exciting collection extends the ongoing debate on falling crime rates from the perspective of criminal opportunity or routine activity theory. It analyses the effect of post WW2 crime booms which triggered a universal improvement in security across the Western world.

This book explores New York City’s historic crime drop over the past quarter of a century. New York City’s dramatic crime decline is a real brainteaser: no one predicted it and, as of yet, no one has explained it, at least to the satisfaction of most social scientists who study crime trends. Three strategic lessons emerge from the contributions to this volume on New York’s crime drop. It is suggested that future research should: • go wide by putting New York in comparative context, nationally and internationally; • go long by putting New York’s recent experience in historical context; • develop a strong ground game by investigating New York’s crime drop across multiple spatial units, down to the street segment. The contributors to Understanding New York’s Crime Drop aim to provoke expanded and sustained attention to crime trends in New York and elsewhere. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Justice Quarterly.

"Starting in the late 1960s, the United States suffered the biggest rise in violent crime in its history. Aside from the movement for black civil rights, it is difficult to think of a phenomenon that had a more profound effect on American life in the last third of the 20th century. Fear of murder, rape, robbery and assault influenced decisions on where to live and where to school one's children, how to commute to work and where to spend one's leisure time. In some locales, people dreaded leaving their homes at any time, day or night, and many Americans spent part of each day literally looking over their shoulders. [This books is a] synthesis of criminology and social history that...explains how and why violent crime exploded across the United States in the late 60s--and what ultimately drove it down decades later. It is the first book of its kind to analyze criminal violence in the U.S. from World War II to the 21st century. It examines crime in the context of all of the major social trends since the World War, including the postwar economic boom and suburbanization, the Baby Boom and the turmoil of the 60s, the urbanization of minorities, the advent of crack cocaine, the hardening of the criminal justice system and current efforts to contract it."--

This authoritative set provides a comprehensive overview of issues and trends in crime, law enforcement, courts, and corrections that encompass the field of criminal justice studies in the United States. This work offers a thorough introduction to the field of criminal justice, including types of crime; policing; courts and sentencing; landmark legal decisions; and local, state, and federal corrections systems—and the key topics and issues within each of these important areas. It provides a complete overview and understanding of the many terms, jobs, procedures, and issues surrounding this growing field of study. Another major focus of the work is to examine ethical questions related to policing and courts, trial procedures, law enforcement and corrections agencies and responsibilities, and the complexion of criminal justice in the United States in the 21st century. Finally, this title emphasizes coverage of such politically charged topics as drug trafficking and substance abuse, immigration, environmental protection, government surveillance and civil rights, deadly force, mass incarceration, police militarization, organized crime, gangs, wrongful convictions, racial disparities in sentencing, and privatization of the U.S. prison system.