Crime prevention efforts aren’t limited to policing and incarceration. Education has long been advocated as a way to help former inmates succeed in the world outside prison after their release and thus reduce reincarceration.
In August 2013, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made headlines when he asserted that new approaches were needed in prosecuting low-level drug-related crimes, with the goal of lowering incarceration rates and reducing the overcrowding of prisons, among other things.
In response to heightened perceptions of youth crime, in the 1970s a number of U.S. states passed laws allowing the prosecution of more teenagers as adults. While many such decisions were subsequently reversed, some states continue to send certain juvenile offenders to adult courts.
From the Scholars Strategy Network, written by Allison Dwyer Emory, Cornell University
Over the past year the death penalty has again come into focus as a major public policy and political issue, catalyzed by several high-profile events.
From the Scholars Strategy Network, written by Bruce Western, Harvard University; and Becky Pettit, University of Washington, Seattle.
