@article{453677,
      author = {Gest, Ted.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/453677},
      title = {Crime & politics big government's erratic campaign for  law and order / [electronic resource] :},
      publisher = {Oxford University Press,},
      abstract = {"Why has America experienced an explosion in crime rates  since 1960? Why has the crime rate dropped in recent years?  Though politicians are always ready both to take the credit  for crime reduction and to exploit grisly headlines for  short-term political gain, these questions remain among the  most important and most difficult to answer in America  today." "In Crime & Politics, journalist Ted Gest gives  readers the inside story of how crime policy is formulated  within the Washington beltway and state capitols, why we've  had cycle after cycle of ineffective federal legislation,  and where promising reforms might lead us in the future.  Gest examines how politicians first made crime a national  rather than a local issue, beginning with Lyndon Johnson's  crime commission and the landmark anti-crime law of 1968,  and continuing right up to such present-day measures as  "three strikes" laws, mandatory sentencing, and community  policing. Gest exposes a lack of consistent leadership,  backroom partisan politics, and the rush to embrace  simplistic solutions as the main causes for why Federal and  state crime programs have failed to make our streets safe.  He also explores how the media aids and abets this trend by  featuring lurid crimes that simultaneously frighten the  public and encourage candidates to offer another round of  quick-fix solutions." "Drawing on extensive research and  including interviews with Edwin Meese, Janet Reno, Joseph  Biden, Ted Kennedy, and William Webster, Crime & Politics  uncovers the real reasons why America continues to struggle  with the crime problem and shows how we can do a better job  in the future."--BOOK JACKET.},
      recid = {453677},
      pages = {1 online resource (viii, 296 p.) :},
      address = {Oxford ;},
      year = {2001},
}