Programs to Reduce Crime in the U.S.
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The overwhelming response to reducing crime in the United States has been to build more prisons and incarcerate more people (Prisons, 1994). At the end of 1997, the United States had more than one and a half million people in prisons and jails, and the money spent to keep them there is often taken from budgets that would otherwise be spent on human services programs. California, for example, spends more on prisons than it does for education. In 1996, a definitive study on different kinds of programs such as improving the quality of people's lives, increasing their chances of getting meaningful jobs, education, and better living standards and their effects o crime was published - Diverting Children from A Life Of Crime, by Peter Greenwood et al of the Rand Corporation. The Rand researchers began with four programs that have been used previously in crime prevention: 1) Home visits by child care professionals, both before birth and extending for two years after birth; 2) Training for parents and therapy for families with children who are found to be at high risk for getting involved with the criminal justice system; 3) Incentives to induce high school students to stay in school and graduate; 4) Monitoring and supervising high school students who have already exhibited delinquent behavior (Prisons, 1994). The study compared the impact of these four programs with the three strikes law of California to determine which of the five programs prevented the most crime.
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program. The Florida study found that academic programs impacted even those groups which normally have high recidivism rates, for example young male, Black offenders and prior recidivists. A New York study found that young inmates who earned a GED while incarcerated had a rearrest rate of 40 percent compared to 54 percent for those with no degree. Inmates with at least two years of college have only a 10 percent rearrest rate compared to the national rearrest rate of 62 percent.
While prison is an effective punishment for many people, whether or not it acts as a deterrent for potential offenders is questionable (Henry, 2000). This depends on the motivation, and it cannot be assumed that all potential offenders are "self-interested, reasoning, rational cost-benefit calculators." The motivation to commit crime is based on demographics, level of education, nature of the offense, and the criminal history of the individual. The data shows that 67 percent of state prison populations are male; Black, Hispanic or other non-white; 86.8 percent are aged between 18 and 44; they are relatively illiterate compared to the U.S. population as a whole, with 40 percent functional illiteracy compared to 21 percent in the population as a who
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Approximate Word count = 1275
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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