First, criminologists should remain committed to their unique role, which is to base thinking about criminal justice on research and analytical thought rather than on feeling and sentiment. Second public opinion can be changed, particularly when the public is given the opportunity to consider alternatives and their likely consequences, based on scientific research. Crime, drugs, and violence compose the contemporary American dilemma. These social problems are fueled largely by the cycle of poverty, familial abuse, and violence that dominates the lives of children and youth and moves them in criminal directions. Prisons do not deter their criminal behavior, partly because many offenders do not rationally calculate their behavior with the same standards used by legislators, and partly because they live in a world already more foreboding than any prison. The soaring homicide rates of the late 1980's and early 1990's are largely the result of an underground drug economy. Based on research findings, policy should move in two directions. First, drug prohibition policies should be reconsidered and recast to focus on the maximization of public health through regulation, education, and treatment. Second, crime-control policymakers should focus on crime prevention, not merely on punishment. 37 references