The book shows how the media, the government, and law enforcement institutions first participated in the construction of an epidemic of violent crime around crack cocaine, and then used this epidemic to support an unprecedented expansion of the criminal justice system. Based on the writings of theorists such as Alfred Schutz, Peter Berger, and others, social constructionism argues that the problems of society are properly understood as the product of the decisions, interpretations, actions, and interactions of individuals engaged in a common social setting or context. To understand social problems, constructionists focus on social action and on claims and claims-makers in a social arena. This book provides a contextual constructionist analysis of the rise and fall of the official index of violent crime in the United States from 1980 to 1994, with attention to the experiences of New York City. The author describes how the decisions, interpretations, actions, and interactions of criminal justice policymakers and analysts, law enforcement officials and officers, and news reports, all acting effectively as claims-makers in the context of an evolving crack cocaine market, contributed to the construction of the rise and fall of a violent crime wave. 4 tables, 3 figures, 154 references, and a subject index