Crimes are funneled through police, courts, and corrections to produce only a trickle of convicted felons who are sent to prison. Factors contributing to this situation include underreporting because of lack of faith in the system, failures in prosecution because the offender and victim knew each other, plea bargaining, and prison overcrowding that ensures that only the most dangerous and hardened criminals serve any time at all. While retribution gratifies basic human desires, it is a symbolic response that fails to diminish crime or the public's fear of it. However, workable solutions to the crime problem are available. The probation system could be rebuilt to create tough sanctions for criminals outside of prisons. Offenders could be put to work at real jobs with real wages and required to pay damages to victims and the State. Finally, a community approach to crime control is needed that could include empowering a volunteer 'police corp,' using team policing, and emphasizing the police social worker and neighborhood problemsolving role. Notes and index. (Publisher abstract modified)