The research review concludes that Federal, State, and local governments could greatly reduce crime and violence by providing families with access to school-readiness child care programs. Recent research from a large 14-year study of children who had been enrolled in government-funded Child-Parent Centers found that compared to children in the program, similar children who did not receive school-readiness child care had 70 percent more arrests for violent crime by age 18. Research also found that low-income and moderate-income working parents cannot pay the cost of good child care programs. Adequate care for two children in a child care center can cost over $12,000 a year, approximately $2,000 more than a full-time minimum wage worker earns. Generally, governments at all levels have not funded nor promoted school-readiness programs for children. Head Start, the primary Federal school-readiness program for children in poverty, is currently underfunded, Federal funds can only support about half of the eligible 3-year-old and 4-year-old children. The Child Care and Development Block Grant program, which is designed to help low-income parents pay for child care, is able to serve only one out of eight eligible children; and for the children being served, funds are too meager to purchase adequate care. Although some States are making comparatively strong contributions to school-readiness programs for children in poverty, no State is even close to meeting the full need for quality child care programs. This report advises that research findings indicate that investing now in school-readiness child care and development programs will yield long-term reductions in government costs associated with crime-control efforts. 88 notes and a list of 6 resources