Individual papers focus on trends in violent crime, particularly homicide and robbery; the factors influencing these trends; the nature and scope of the problems associated with guns and the variety of efforts to address them; and the combined incapacitative and deterrent effects of incarceration. Additional papers examine specific aspects of the decline in adult homicides, the origins and decline of the crack trade, policing innovations and their impacts, decision making regarding wages from legitimate jobs and payoffs from crime, and past demographic patterns and future demographic possibilities. The authors note that several trends that have contributed to the decline in violent crime cannot continue indefinitely. These include gun control efforts at both the local and Federal levels; changes in drug markets, particularly the decline of crack cocaine; and economic shifts in the form of high employment in the flourishing economy of the late 1990’s. Figures, tables, chapter notes and reference lists, and index