Citation

Zimring FE. Polit. Life Sci. 1997; 16(1): 44-45.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Association for Politics and the Life Sciences)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Bryan Vila reminds us of several disturbing features of American society and government over the last quarter centuly. Our collective investment in direct crime control has mushroomed since the 1970s and has long passed the threshold of diminishing marginal returns from incapacita- tion and deterrence. We get less crime prevention bang for each extra prison building buck. Meanwhile, public invest- ment m the welfare and development of young people in the United States has expanded much less dramatically than have our budgets for prisons and jails. Yet even modestly successful efforts to divert young people from criminal involvement at early ages can be much more cost-effective than life prison t e r n for habitual offenders. Vila believes, as do many others, that these conditions justify a major campaign to provide more resources for investment in our young persons as human capital. So far, so good. But how should we obtain public support for child development? .....

Language: en