Skip to main content
Article
Book Review - When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) (2010)
  • John J. Donohue, Stanford Law School
Abstract

Two of the most dramatic social phenomena of the last half century in the United States are the substantial rise in crime that occurred during the 1960s and the equally dramatic drop in crime that began roughly contemporaneously with the advent of the Clinton Administration. The good news is that we have improved things from the violent and crime-filled days of the late 1980s and early 1990s; the bad news is that we have increased our prison population immensely in the effort. We may now be enjoying the return to the crime levels of the early 1960s, but we also have a prison and jail population that is almost seven times larger.

Keywords
  • crime,
  • punishment,
  • guns,
  • death penalty,
  • violent crime
Disciplines
Publication Date
Spring March, 2010
Citation Information
John J. Donohue. "Book Review - When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment" Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Vol. Vol. XLVIII (2010)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/john_donohue/85/