Product Description
Since the crime explosion of the 1960s, the prison population in the United States has multiplied fivefold, to one prisoner for every hundred adults–a rate unprecedented in American history and unmatched anywhere in the world. Even as the prisoner head count continues to rise, crime has stopped falling, and poor people and minorities still bear the brunt of both crime and punishment. When Brute Force Fails explains how we got into the current trap and how we can ge… More >>
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment
Tags: 1960s, american history, brunt, brute force, crime and punishment, explosion, minorities, prison population
Mark Kleiman has had an interesting career which included public service, academia and stints in the private sector. He notes at his acknowledgements that, “I realize that I have been preparing to write this book for most of a lifetime…” Kleiman then weighs in on controversies as varied as gun control to drug policy. In an eleven chapters he weaves an interesting argument that produces a tapestry that includes both broad generalizations as well as a healthy number of extremely specific recommendations for action across society as a whole.
As one would expect, crime control – a perennial popular public policy issue – has some well entrenched positions that are assumed by advocates on reflex. Kleiman argues at the introduction that:
“The first step in getting away from brute force is to want to get away from brute force: to care more about reducing crime than about punishing criminals, and to be willing to choose safety over vengeance when the two are in tension.”
When grappling with crime control, he advocates additional considerations be factored into a real solution -concentration of resources and direct communication of deterrent threats to likely offenders.
Simply this book is guaranteed to upset almost every reader’s comfort level at some point, to prove this I refer you to his sixteen page final chapter innocuously labeled as “An Agenda for Crime Control”. Kleiman ultimately concludes that “Liberals will have to swallow the idea that improved coercion is as necessary as improved conditions. Conservatives will have to swallow the ideas that punishment is a cost and not a benefit and that the measure of the efficacy of a threat is how often it does not need to be carried out, plus the fact that providing services to actual and potential offenders can in some circumstances control crime more effectively and more cost-effectively than law enforcement.”
This book is a worthwhile investment of your time.
Rating: 4 / 5
“When Brute Force Fails” is interesting, relevant, and informative on many levels. Mark Kleiman has a unique gift to explain the complex historical, economic and sociological aspects of crime research in a straightforward and concise manner. He first makes a strong case that crime is an extremely important and costly problem in America today. Drawing on decades of academic and policy experience he then manages to summarize the history and current state of the field in a fluent and succinct style. He concludes by constructing a convincing argument for his idea of concentrating law enforcement mechanisms in high crime areas as the most efficient means for decreasing the huge burden of crime on American society. This argument is intertwined throughout with relevant data, case studies, and an eye to the practical aspects of crime control that are of interest to the academic, policy analyst, and lay person alike.
Rating: 5 / 5
Professor Kleiman employs psychology, economics, game theory, and real-world examples to explain why harsher punishments are often less effective at controlling the behavior of criminals than targeted, swift and certain punishments. He persuasively argues that we can significantly reduce crime and punishment (particularly punishment of the prison incarceration variety) by focusing enforcement resources to make the threat of getting caught and going to jail a real threat thereby reducing the costs on society of crime, punishment, and the steps taken by law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from crime. A thoroughly enlightening read, When Brute Force Fails forced me to think about the costs to society crime causes in a way I had never considered before (the price you pay for gas at the pump would likely be less if you didn’t have to drive to your job from your home in the suburbs every day. A home you likely own because it is too dangerous to live in the city and the crumbling infrastructure is no place you want to raise your children.) A must read for policy makers and concerned citizens alike.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book provides a rare service to anyone interested in our country developing effective and fair criminal justice and drug policies. Mark Kleiman brings together not only his own lifetime’s work in research in a highly accessible fashion, but also pulls together the best ideas from other leading thinkers. At all times this book points towards what can and must be done. He gently pushes aside ideological arguments and lays out a realistic path to reducing crime, drug use, and costly incarceration at the same time. His comments on how to better manage the 5 million Americans in probation or parole to help them reduce their drug use and their criminal activity is along worth getting the book. The information on what Hawaii has done through the HOPE probation program, by instituting certain but brief punishments (say a weekend in jail for one dirty drug test) is truly amazing, since many of these offenders were former heavy methamphetamine users. But in Hawaii the right mix of smart policies, properly administered, quickly transformed the behavior of most of the probationers. “When Brute Force Fails” is an instant classic and a must read.
Rating: 5 / 5
America’s criminal justice system has a problem. It locks up about 5 times more people than any other Western country, and the Pew Center calculated in 2008 that 1% of the adult population is now in jail.
What is needed are pragmatic solutions that go beyond slogans like `being tough’ on crime, or naive faith in the force of more education. What is needed is a national brainstorm session. Kleiman has provided an excellent start to this. His book is very well researched, and refreshingly pragmatic. He gives a long list of recommendations in this book, foremost among them what he calls `dynamic concentration’. Instead of spreading enforcement resources thinly, so that they have little deterrent effect, concentrate them on a small community. Since there are often positive feedback effects in crime, intense monitoring and quick sentencing may be able to tip these communities into a new, stable, low-crime equilibrium. At this point enforcement can be relaxed and move on to a new area without a rise in crime in the old area.
This is easier said than done, and the case studies discussed by Kleiman reveal that the devil is in the details. The coordination required between several enforcement branches is enormous and the strategy is not free either. So although dynamic concentration is a long way off from solving the national crime problem, it is these kinds of pragmatic ideas that are necessary for eventual success. Hopefully policy makers who read this book will feel encouraged to start experimenting with Kleiman’s ideas.
Rating: 5 / 5