U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

American Dream and Crime in the Twenty-First Century: Presidential Address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

NCJ Number
161062
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1995) Pages: 427-445
Author(s)
H E Allen
Date Published
1995
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper examines criminogenic influences in the United States and proposes a strategy for addressing these influences.
Abstract
The rapid and accelerating changes in the Nation's economic and social systems have caused the most harm to the undereducated, underemployed, and unemployed "underclass," many of whom will be unable to escape becoming the "permanent underclass." As a group, the disadvantaged are overrepresented in drug, gang, and gun violence. Such crimes have contributed to citizens' fear of crime, a fear fueled by mass media coverage of crime news and exploited by politicians for their own election. Instead of addressing the factors that contribute to crime, the Nation has adopted a more dispositional attributional position, inflicting penal harm and increasing the scale of punishment to deter further criminal behavior. This set of policies will not meet the desired objectives. An investment in social and human capital through programs of education, short- term emergency efforts, parenting programs, and a national service program represents a social reproduction program that can reverse the economic and spiritual declines now underway. 53 references