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Summary: Fascinating inside story of crime policy
Review: 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 to 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 AND POLITICS, award-winning 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. Drawing on extensive research and including interviews with Edwin Meese, Janet Reno, Joseph Biden, Ted Kennedy, and William Webster, CRIME AND POLITICS uncovers the real reasons why American continues to struggle with the crime problem and shows how we can do a better job in the future. "Ted Gest's book is a unique contribution to understanding how criminal justice policies are fashioned at the national level. The book offers a compelling insider's view of the deals, political bargains, individual egos, and agency turf wars that shape the real world of federal criminal policy. The book spans several decades in which the modern criminal justice system was born and shaped. It is a must read for those who want to know how America lost its way in the war against crime--and how we might find a path back to enlightened and rational domestic policies."--Dr. Barry Krisberg, President, National Council on Crime and Delinquency "Crime is not just a continuing national problem, it is also a major focus of jockeying for political advantage. Ted Gest is a distinguished journalist who has dvoted his career to studying both crime and the political machinations it engenders. His book is filled with important insights into the problems of crime and its political battlegrounds."--Alfred Blumstein, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University
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