Crime in the United States has declined
substantially in recent years. Homicide, robbery, rape, and assault
have all dropped sharply since highs in the early 1990s. Substance abuse
has declined less sharply, however, and drug-related arrests have actually
increased steadily, reaching record highs over the past few years. The
number of people under some form of correctional supervision, meanwhile,
has also continued to reach new highs. In 1996, over 5.5 million Americans (or about 2 percent)
were in prison, jail, on probation or parole.
While criminologists (and, indeed, most Americans) agree that more needs to be done to lower the national crime rate, there are sharp differences over how this should be accomplished. Some believe that tougher enforcement policies should be pursued, including increased spending on law enforcement and prison facilities, longer sentences for offenders, and stepped up use of the death penalty for the worst crimes. Others argue that more money needs to be spent on prevention, including social services and education, to provide hope and opportunity for potential offenders.
This section examines all of these issue in depth.
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- Political Magazines: The Almanac's links to political and public policy magazine sites.
- Public Policy Jobs: Sites listing public policy, lobbying, and media jobs in government and at major national organizations.
- Questia: Search over 400,000 books and journals at Questia online.
- Criminal Justice MegaLinks: A comprehensive library of resources and lectures in crime, justice, criminology, and law.
- Criminal Justice Resources: Assembled by Jon Harris, criminal justice specialist at Michigan State University's library.
- Mishpat.Net Law Guide
- Open Directory - International Criminal Court
- Open Directory Project: Crime and Justice
- Yahoo: Crime
- FBI Uniform Crime Reports: Comprehensive crime statistics produced from data provided by nearly 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): A bureau of the U.S. Department of Justice and perhaps the best known federal crime enforcement agency.
- House Judiciary Committee
- Senate Judiciary Committee
- U.S. Department of Justice
- U.S. Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics
- U.S. Supreme Court
- White House Social Statistics Briefing Room: Crime
- American Bar Association: Voluntary professional association of US attorneys.
- Cato Institute - Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement: Promoting an American public policy based on individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peaceful international relations. Extensive library of studies, articles and monographs available
- Center for Court Innovation: Information about problemsolving courts, such as drug courts, community courts and mental health courts, which seek to improve case outcomes for communities and litigants.
- Equal Justice USA: Seeks to bring into clear focus the racial, economic and political biases active in U.S. courts, prisons, jails and policing agencies, and to expand public opposition to the death penalty.
- Heritage Foundation - Crime
- Impact of a Criminal Record: Information about the effects of a criminal record on such matters as voting rights, employment, pensions, and ability to obtain a license.
- Miranda Rights: News and resources on the history and fate of the warnings given while being arrested.
- National Consortium for Justice Information Statistics
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service: Lists publications and links on corrections, courts, crime, drugs, international crime, juvenile justice, law enforcement, research, statistics, crime victims.
- National Institute of Corrections
- Progressive Policy Institute - Crime & Public Safety
- Supreme Court Decisions: FindLaw for Legal Professionals is a free resource for attorneys that includes online case law, free state codes, free federal codes, free legal forms, and a directory of products and services for lawyers. This online legal Web site also includes a legal career center.
- Urban Institute - Justice
- Check and Credit Card Fraud (US Department of Justice: September 30, 2003) -- PDF File
- Family Violence (National Criminal Justice Reference Service: Added August 7, 2003)
- Criminal Victimization: 2002 (US Bureau of Justice Statistics: August, 2003)
- Crime Control: The Federal Response (Congressional Research Service: September 12, 2002)
- Identity Theft: Growing Prevalence and Cost (General Accounting Office: February 14, 2002)
- Domestic Violence (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: April, 2000)
- Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (U.S. Department of Justice: provided through State University of New York at Albany)
Directory |
- Death Penalty (35)
- Drugs (45)
- Gun Control (79)
- Juvenile Justice (7)
- Law (37)
- Law Enforcement (29)
- Prisons (31)