Crime is not increasing; it is only being reported more frequently. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency reported recently that, except for murder, there has been very little increase in serious crime in America over the past decade. Police and prisons are not an effective means of suppressing crime in this country. From 1972 to 1980, while nonmurderous crime remained relatively stable, the prison population rose by 60 percent. Sending muggers or killers to jail did not reduce those crimes. Jobs are not the answer to reducing crime. Crime rose during the prosperous 1960's, but not in times of high unemployment during the Great Depression or the minidepressions of the past decade. Criminologists have begun to see alienation and lack of hope for whole groups and classes of people as the causes of crime. When the poor see the rich getting richer and their own social possibilities blocked, they develop frustration and rage at a life in which the future has no meaning. Any attempt at solving the problem of criminal violence must consider this rage and alienation, as all successful crime prevention programs have done. They have fostered the conviction that real change was possible. For instance, Detroit has seen a 30-percent drop in crime since 1977 following innovations that raised minority participation: the police force added more blacks and was decentralized; more than 4,000 block clubs were formed to curb crime; and the election of a black mayor brought more blacks into positions of power. Similarly, the civil rights movement reduced crime among black people by giving them a sense of hope, of race pride, and of community. Tabular data are provided.