For almost three decades street crime has been a volatile, persistent, and intractable issue in American politics. Yet the significance of all this sound and fury remains unclear. At first glance, the problem seems to be primarily criminological. We have failed to keep street crime within acceptable limits despite what appear to be very favorable circumstances. In the struggle against street crime, there seems to be a veritable army of trained professionals backed by committed political leaders and an aroused public pitted against people who are for the most part marginalized Americans without much talent or training.

Upon closer examination,...

There are good reasons to believe that street crime has been a salient political issue in the United States since the mid-1960s. Survey data reveal increasing levels of public fear of crime as well as a persistent inclination to see crime as one of the country's most important political issues.¹ Street crime was also the primary focus of a national agency, the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, which was created by Congress and actively functioned during the 1970s.

James Q. Wilson, one of the most influential commentators on the politicization of street crime, has argued that it can be traced to...

In principle, it might seem that a law and order political climate would reinforce an already strong police commitment to a punitive version of volitional criminology. At the heart of this kind of thinking are the traditionally punitive police subculture and the assumption of a political alliance between the police and law and order elements within the public. That was certainly my view several years ago when I wrote: “It ... seems likely, as long as the politics of law-and-order continue to predominate, that the political arena will be receptive to rank-and-file demands for a more punitive policy posture.”¹ In...

The criminal courts are anchored in a contradiction that has significant policy implications. On the one hand, criminal courts are set up as autonomous agents of legal values and, more particularly, of adversarial justice and due process protections. These values are incorporated into institutional processes; they are intrinsic to the professional training of judges, prosecutors, and defense counsel; and they are at the heart of rule of law ideology. Generally speaking, these legal values tend to distance the criminal courts from the pressures and policies associated with the politicization of street crime.

On the other hand, there are powerful forces...

This book has pursued two distinct but related themes. At its core it has been an inquiry into the political culture of criminal process: its objective has been to explore how society thinks about the nature, causes, and consequences of street crime; how these perceptions develop and change; and how they are politicized. Woven into this core has been a more narrowly criminological theme, an exploration of volitional and structural approaches to crime control. Linking these two themes has been an effort to understand how the political culture of criminal process influences crime control policy.

On most of these matters,...