Although the components of the criminal justice continuum appear superficially to be an integrated whole with a high degree of coordination, in reality they operate separately and wilfully ignore one another's activities. Low clearance rates and plea bargaining are two indications of the system's ineffectiveness. Employee theft, burglary, narcotics trafficking, and white-collar crime all pay for most people. As a result, the inmate population represents only a small segment of the total criminality in our society. Furthermore, the change in the Texas law on marijuana, the decentralization of the police forces in the United States, and our refusal to demand an exhaustion of legal remedies as shown by the lack of executions in Texas since 1964 all indicate our unwillingness to support effective law enforcement. To prevent crime, our society needs strong family solidarity, a deeply held religious or moral ideology, and certainty and swiftness of punishment for infractions of the law. Mandatory military or public service for all young men and women would also be desirable.