Sampson and Laub argue that crime causes have three sources: weak social bonds to family, school, and work; disruption of relations between individuals and institutions that provide social capital; and the influence of structural disadvantage. This life-course perspective suggests the inappropriateness of crime policies that focus solely on the deterrent and incapacitative effects of the criminal justice system. The life-course perspective focuses on the decisions and events that shape life stages, transitions, and turning points and considers the possibility of change as individuals move through life. This perspective suggests that crime policy should focus on developing and strengthening an individual's social bonds to society to provide informal social control at each stage of life. A starting point is childhood and the need to develop parent training programs. Adolescence requires more complex intervention strategies that include parental control and supervision as well as strengthening social bonds to school, peers, and the community. The focus in adulthood should be the strengthening of cohesive ties in marriage, work, or both. The life-course perspective also suggests that current policies emphasizing imprisonment are producing unintended criminogenic effects in that lengthy prison terms severely damage offenders' future job prospects. A broader crime policy is needed that goes beyond formal social control by the criminal justice system and that places the greatest emphasis on nongovernmental institutions such as families, schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Notes and 35 references