Crime and Punishment in America

The current nationwide drop in violent crime coupled with a continuing economic boom gives us the money and the breathing room to make choices about how we will approach crime in the next century, according to Currie (Reckoning: Drugs, the Cities, and the American Future). In this sobering report, he argues that we will eventually see higher violent- crime rates if we do not put greater resources into antipoverty programs instead of into continued prison building, which he sees as being, at best, a failed strategy tainted by racial bias. Currie, who teaches at Berkeley's Legal Studies program, backs up chapters on ""Prison Myths"" and his proposed alternatives with a wealth of studies and statistics. So much factual information is set forth from so many different sources, in fact, that the book seems muddled at times. Currie wants to use four cost-effective social programs he is certain will help achieve a sustainable, long-term lowering of crime rates. They include preventing child neglect and abuse; early intervening for at-risk youth; keeping vulnerable adolescents in school job-training programs; and investing time and money in adolescents who are already committing crimes. Although Currie makes a convincing case for his priorities, his book reads more like an academic treatise than an attempt to make his recommended social programs--which look to be a tough sell in these conservative times--anecdotally accessible. Rights (except first serial, British, electronic): Brockman Inc. Author tour. (Feb.)