In the 1960's and 1970's, conservative politicians -- desperate for an issue that would increase their chances of being elected -- created crime as a political issue and a major social problem. They essentially created a view of crime and justice that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and at the same time has created a system for oppressing minorities and the poor that is unprecedented in modern democracies. There is some evidence that politicians were buttressed further by the vested interests of law enforcement agencies that were attempting to increase the size and power of their bureaucracies and their share of tax dollars in the competition among various government agencies. Today, politicians, policymakers, and some criminologists keep the alarm bells ringing. Despite the fact that prior to the 1970's the public was more concerned about war, civil rights, poverty, and unemployment, through a great deal of political rhetoric, the Nation's leaders were able to turn the public's attention to crime in general and more specifically toward a mindset that began to equate crime with blacks/African-Americans and/or other minority groups. Crime in the public image in the United States today is not racially neutral, and one of the most damaging consequences of perpetuating the myth of out-of-control crime is that it has led inevitably to the arrest and incarceration of minorities at a rate far out of proportion to the size of their population. 32 references