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

Culture and Crime

NCJ Number
169815
Author(s)
A Carlson; C Check
Date Published
1996
Length
46 pages
Annotation
This cultural and historical analysis of crime and crime causes concludes that common and predictable patterns of criminality are linked to changes in social and economic structures and recommends specific principles and strategies to prevent or reduce crime and rehabilitate offenders.
Abstract
The analysis considers social and economic trends and crime patterns in Europe and North America. It concludes that the policy focus should shift from a war on crime to the encouragement of political, social, and economic contexts that display relatively little criminality. The general principles include industrial decentralization, limits to urbanization, preservation of the rural economy, political decentralization, community covenants, and a broadened integration of adults with youth in common activities. Additional principles and strategies should include family reconstruction through favorable tax treatment, encouragement of the family economy, and policies that encourage families to reclaim meaningful functions voluntarily. Finally, society should recognize that religious communities are among the most powerful inhibitors of criminal behavior and should enact policies that tolerate communal religiosity through measures such as educational vouchers without conditions or redirecting government education subsidies directly to parents through tax relief tied to family size rather than educational choice. Figure, reference notes, and list of other publications from the same organization