Crime and violence in the United States

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Review of Elliott Currie, Crime and punishment in America
By H. Bruce Franklin, Guardian, 22 March 1998. Author clings to the notion that we should concentrate more on the prevention of crime, and he accepts the idea that widespread poverty is the main cause of violent crime.
Prisons and Crime Rates
Opinion piece by Neal R. Peirce, Philadelphia Enquirer, 15 March 1999. Of the people now going to prison, Schlosser reports, less than a third have committed a violent crime. Surge in inprisonment associated with punishment of drug offenses since 1970s. A prison-industrial complex.
TV news fuels crime fears
Commentary by Earl Ofari Hutchinson, 20 May 1999. Many blame the media for fueling public perceptions that crime still rages and criminals lurk behind every street lamp. TV newsrooms spent the past two decades turning TV crime into a sure-fire formula for ratings.
Summit rhetoric hides the class nature of violence
By Greg Butterfield, Workers World, 27 May 1999. The terrible shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., on April 20 have prompted a dialog among various sectors of society. Politicians and corporate-dominated television and newspapers call for more repressive measures. Clinton’s summit on youth violence in Washington was a farce. A war of ideas being waged against young people.
US fall in crime ‘due to abortion’
Independent (London), 9 August 1999. Theory that the fall in US crime is the result of legalising abortion in the 1970s: by removing those who would have been most likely to commit crimes—the unwanted children of teenage, poor and minority women—abortion removed a potential criminal cadre. The political implications of this theory.
Crime in the ‘Liberal’ Media
By Sean Gonsalves, Cape Cod Times, 10 April 2001. Concerning the report, Off Balance: Youth, Race & Crime in the News. According to this study, the news media does not present an accurate picture of crime in America.
Major Crimes In U.S. Increase: 2001 Rise Follows 9 Years of Decline
By Dan Eggen, Washington Post, Sunday 23 June 2002. Many police chiefs and criminologists have warned that surges in the numbers of teenagers and released prisoners, along with recent economic declines, threatened a return to rising crime. While criminologists are divided over what causes crime rates to increase, most believe that economics and demographics play crucial roles.