Table Of ContentCriminology and Public Policy
Edited by
Hugh D. Barlow and
Scott H. Decker
Cr iminology
Public Policy
and
Putting Theory to Work
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1601 North Broad Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress
Copyright © 2010 by Temple University
All rights reserved
Published 2010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Criminology and public policy : putting theory to work / edited by
Hugh D. Barlow and Scott H. Decker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4399-0006-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4399-0007-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Criminology. 2. Crime—Government policy. 3. Crime prevention.
4. Criminal justice, Administration of. I. Barlow, Hugh D. II. Decker,
Scott H.
HV6025.C7458 2009
364—dc22 2009018647
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
Printed in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
Contents
Foreword, by Francis T. Cullen vii
Preface xi
PART I The Policy Implications of General Theories of Crime
Introduction to Part I: Putting Criminological Theory
into Practice 3
Hugh D. Barlow and Scott H. Decker
1 Control Balance Theory and Social Policy 6
Charles R. Tittle
2 Controlling Crime: Recommendations from
General Strain Theory 25
Robert Agnew
3 The Normal Crime Rate, the Economy, and Mass
Incarceration: An Institutional Anomie Perspective on
Crime Control Policy 45
Richard Rosenfeld and Steven F. Messner
4 A General Theory of Crime and Public Policy 66
Alex R. Piquero
5 Nothing Is as Practical as a Good Theory: Social Learning
Theory and the Treatment and Prevention of Delinquency 84
Ronald L. Akers
6 Routine Precautions, Criminology, and Crime Prevention 106
Marcus Felson and Ronald V. Clarke
vi Contents
PART II The Policy Implications of Theory
Applied to Specifi c Crime Types
Introduction to Part II: Impact of Theory and Policy
on Key Criminological Issues 123
Hugh D. Barlow and Scott H. Decker
7 Decision Making by Persistent Thieves and
Crime Control Policy 128
Neal Shover and Heith Copes
8 Theories of Gang Behavior and Public Policy 150
Jean M. McGloin and Scott H. Decker
9 State Crime Theory and Control 166
Dawn L. Rothe and David Kauzlarich
10 Theories of White-Collar Crime and Public Policy 188
Nicole Leeper Piquero and Andrea Schoepfer
11 Drug Law and Violent Retaliation 201
Scott Jacques and Richard Wright
12 Feminist Criminology: Beyond the Slaying of Demons 215
Marie Griffi n
13 Critical Race Perspectives: Explaining the Differential
Treatment of Racial Minorities by the Criminal Justice System 233
Katharine Tellis, Nancy Rodriguez, and Cassia Spohn
14 Problem-Solving Restorative Justice: From Incidents and
Cases to Community Building and Collective Outcomes
in a New Response to Youth Crime 254
Gordon Bazemore and Rachel Boba
Contributors 277
Index 283
Foreword
M
ass incarceration has been the lynchpin of American crime control
policy over the past three decades. It is the elephant in the policy room;
it dominates our attention and shows little inclination to leave. Com-
mentators now repeat with numbing regularity that, on any given day, nearly
2.4 million people are institutionalized. Next year or soon thereafter, the count
will be 2.5 million, and then 2.6 million, and likely 3 million.
Many factors have fueled this penal harm movement, as Todd Clear poi-
gnantly terms it. But one suspects that it would not have been possible if cor-
rectional institutions were not brimming mainly with the poor and with people
of color. It is not that imprisoned offenders are blameless; life-course criminol-
ogy shows that most have violated the law many times over. Still, prison inmates
often are nastily portrayed as “the Other”—as shrewd calculators undeserving
of our help or as super-predators beyond redemption. This imagery inspires
relief that this dangerous class sits safely away from us and behind the prison’s
high and sturdy walls. However, if offenders were more like “us”—a bit more
affl uent, members perhaps of our neighborhood or church—our capacity to
turn a moral blind eye would not be so easy. We might ask more often whether,
beyond slamming prison cell doors shut, something else might be done to save
our wayward brethren from lives in crime.
In this context, we are fortunate that criminologists serve the crucial role
of stubbornly challenging the hegemony of get-tough thinking. As professionals,
criminologists sometimes commit the error of over-identifying with offenders,
of seeing the bad hand they have been dealt in life and thus of ignoring their
pathology and the harm they visit on others. But if occasionally guilty of political
correctness, criminologists also have the imagination—rooted, I believe, in a
viii Foreword
collective empathy for the plight of offenders that comes from studying them
up close—to envision a different future in which crime control involves far more
than mass incarceration. The reductionist trap of seeing offenders as “the Other”
is avoided, and the complexities surrounding their lives are appreciated.
The profession’s excursion into the policy domain, however, would be like
wandering in the dark if the pathway were not illuminated by criminological
theory. In any applied venture, theorizing is not some quaint, esoteric under-
taking that is divorced from the real world. Rather, at the core of scientifi c
criminology are the ideas that specify causal relationships and, ultimately, the
factors that must be transformed if crime is to be reduced. A-theoretical inter-
ventions—such as boot-camp programs, to give but one recent example—are
doomed to failure. They are the twenty-fi rst-century equivalent of bloodletting
in which common-sense folk ideas lead to quackery.
In the current policy landscape, criminological theory has had an important
impact in at least three notable areas. First, life-course and developmental crimi-
nology has pushed interest into the beginning years of life and identifi ed key risk
factors that can be targeted for change. Early-intervention programs are thus
gaining in credibility. Second, social learning theory underlies the principles of
effective intervention developed by Don Andrews, James Bonta, and Paul Gen-
dreau. Correctional treatment programs based on these ideas are being imple-
mented successfully across North America. Third, routine activity/opportunity
theory has informed a lengthy roster of situational crime prevention initiatives.
Results drawn from across nations and diverse contexts are promising.
These interventions are increasingly infl uential for a trinity of reasons:
They reduce crime, are cost-effective, and are supported by the public. Alter-
natives to penal harm are possible; in fact, the recipe for success is emerging.
Thus, programs that refl ect sound theoretical principles and are evidence-
based, that can be shown to be a worthy investment of the public treasury, and
that earn the trust of the citizenry have the chance to shape crime policy in
meaningful ways.
Criminology and Public Policy enriches this ongoing conversation about the
future of crime control in the United States. An unexpected benefi t is that within
its covers, prominent scholars provide parsimonious and accessible summaries
of their theories. In a very real way, this is a theory book fi rst and foremost—and
a policy book thereafter. Beyond this special feature, the volume is invaluable
in showing why mass incarceration and naïve get-tough policies have only a
limited impact on the crime rate. In chapter after chapter, the authors illuminate
the intricate sources of crime that rest far beyond the reach of a punitive state
and its harsh legal sanctions. The scholars also reveal, however, why certain
current programs (e.g., early-intervention initiatives) are effective: They target
for change the factors that theories argue are central to crime causation.
Foreword ix
The book also is sobering. It cautions that ingrained structural factors and
political interests conspire to sustain get-tough policies and to limit more pro-
gressive approaches to reducing crime. These admonitions are important, for
they discourage utopian thinking and let those with reformist impulses com-
prehend the daunting obstacles they are likely to confront.
In the end, however, Criminology and Public Policy is an optimistic venture.
The contributors offer a roster of fresh, innovative ideas on how crime might
best be understood and addressed. Their collective criminological imagination
thus energizes the mind and inspires thought about how a better world might
be constructed. I trust that this will be a gift that all readers will receive from
the pages that follow.
— Francis T. Cullen
University of Cincinnati
