IN LIGHT OF HEIGHTENED RACIAL AND ETHNIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND AWARENESS OF SOCIAL INJUSTICE AMONG MINORITY GROUPS, ONE MIGHT EXPECT POLITICAL ACTION ON THE PART OF THE LARGE NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED GHETTO YOUTHS. INSTEAD, YOUNG BLACKS REACT TO THEIR JOBLESSNESS BY BECOMING INVOLVED IN DRUGS AND CRIME. THIS REACTION HAS BEEN CONDONED AS ONLY NATURAL BY THOSE WHO FORWARD THE NOTION OF MINORITY OFFENDERS AS SOCIAL VICTIMS, AND HAS BEEN PROMOTED BY THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM'S WILLINGNESS TO BARGAIN WITH OFFENDERS RATHER THAN PUNISH THEM. ACCEPTANCE OF CRIME AS A NATURAL RESPONSE FOR GHETTO YOUTH HAS SERVED AS A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY AND HAS ENCOURAGED THE CHANNELING OF A POTENTIALLY STRONG POLITICAL FORCE INTO A DEAD-END DIVERSION THAT HELPS TO MAINTAIN AN OUTDATED ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STATUS QUO. THERE ARE NO DEFINITIVE STUDIES INDICATING THAT POTENTIAL CRIMINALS CANNOT BE DETERRED BY SWIFT, UNIFORM PRISON SENTENCES, YET THE IDEA OF DETERRENCE AND ITS CONCOMITANT THAT PUNISHMENT IS JUSTIFIABLE HAVE BEEN RIDICULED AND FOUND MORALLY REPUGNANT FOR SEVERAL REASONS, NONE OF WHICH IS PERSUASIVE. THOSE WHO ARGUE THAT OFFENDERS BELONGING TO OPPRESSED GROUPS ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS MAKE THE UNJUSTIFIABLE LEAP FROM THE ASSERTION THAT SUCH OFFENDERS ARE SOCIAL VICTIMS TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE CRIMINAL ACTS THEY COMMIT ARE POLITICAL ACTS. AN OVERLY SIMPLISTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE VERY COMPLEX PSYCHOANALYTIC MODEL UNDERLIES ARGUMENTS THAT CRIMINALS ARE SOCIAL VICTIMS WHO ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CRIMINAL ACTS AND WHO MUST BE HELPED, NOT PUNISHED. THOSE WHO BASE THEIR AVERSION TO PUNISHMENT ON IMAGES OF PRISONS AS PENAL SNAKEPITS FAIL TO CONSIDER THAT OUTMODED 19TH-CENTURY PRISONS NEED NOT BE THE NORM. ONE POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE IS THE INSTITUTION IN WHICH THE PUNITIVE ELEMENT IS RESTITUTION THROUGH WORK AT MINIMUM WAGES. IN NEW YORK CITY, THERE HAS BEEN AN INCREASE IN TWO KINDS OF CRIME: HOMICIDE IN WHICH THE VICTIM IS UNKNOWN TO THE MURDERER, AND THEFT BY YOUNG, INEXPERIENCED OFFENDERS. COMMON SENSE SUGGESTS THAT, UNLIKE CRIMES OF PASSION AND CRIME BY PROFESSIONALS, SUCH OFFENSES MIGHT BE MINIMIZED THROUGH MORAL CONDEMNATION AND LEGAL PUNISHMENT. IT SEEMS REASONABLE TO BELIEVE THAT WELL INTENTIONED SYMPATHY FOR CRIMINALS HELPS BOTH TO KEEP CRIME RATES HIGH AND TO PREVENT THE VERY CHANGES THAT REPRESENT THE BEST LONG-RANGE SOLUTION TO CRIME. THERE IS LITTLE HOPE OF ERADICATING UNEMPLOYMENT, HOUSING, EDUCATION, AND HEALTH PROBLEMS IN THE GHETTO AS LONG AS GHETTO YOUTHS ARE ENGAGED IN CRIME RATHER THAN IN POLITICAL ACTIVITY. (LKM)