Each year 24 million Americans are victims of crime. U.S. taxpayers spend more and more each year on police, prisons and judges--a record $200 billion at last count. They incarcerate more and more persons each year--two million plus. Yet prestigious commissions show not only that this standard way of responding to crime is ineffective but that there is scientific proof that many projects that tackle risk factors that cause crime are effective. Rather than sending more people to jail or hiring more and more police, the author, and the research, shows that addressing problems in the community does more to prevent crime. This timely book illustrates in convincing detail what needs to be done to prevent crime and keep people out of prison. Here, Waller shows that hiring public health nurses and investing in helping youth at risk to complete school and get job training is better than hiring more police; preventing family violence, banning hand guns and dealing with drugs through public health saves more lives than incarceration; getting close neighbors to watch out for us and better industrial design are more effective than criminal courts; smarter policing is better than more police; paying for services to support victims and guaranteeing them rights is better than more rhetoric. Addressing the social issues that lead to crime, rather than addressing crime after it happens, or putting stiffer penalties in place, will contribute to creating a safer society and to keeping kids and adults from taking the wrong path toward a life of crime.

The U.S. is the worlds biggest jailor and one of the most affluent murderous countries, and yet its citizens pay more taxes to sustain law and order than their European counterparts. Yet, the U.S. has the most data in the world on the use of incarceration and its failure. Its researchers have identified more projects able to prevent violence than the rest of the world put together. Its legislators have access to pioneering data banks on cost effective ways to use taxes to reduce crime. We are left wondering why we cannot implement measures that we know will work, reduce crime, and cost less for law and order. Smarter Crime Control shows how to use recent knowledge and best practices to reduce the extraordinarily high rates of murder, traffic fatalities, drug overdoses, and incarceration, while avoiding the high taxes paid by families for policing and prisons. Providing detailed examples, Irvin Waller offers specific actions our leaders at all levels can take to reduce violence and lower costs to taxpayers. He focuses on how to retool policing and improve corrections to reduce reoffending and crime, while limiting criminal courts. He also shows how programs and investments in various strategies can help those youth on the path to chronic offending avoid the path all together. Waller shows how to get smart on crime to shift the criminal justice paradigm from the failing, outdated, racially biased, and exorbitant complex today to an effective, modern, fair and lean system for safer communities that spares so many victims from the loss and pain of preventable violence. He makes a compelling case for reinvesting what is currently misspent on reacting to crime into smart ways to prevent crime. Ultimately, he demonstrates to readers the importance of reevaluating our current system and putting into place proven strategies for crime and violence prevention that will keep people out of jail and make our streets and communities safer for everyone.

When the victims of injustice lose faith in their justice system, the crime they've endured cuts only deeper, adding insult to injury. The time has come to face the truth that most victims of crime will not have their needs met and often won't experience our systems of justice as just. This short book makes its readers experts in advocating rights for victims of crime. It empowers taxpayers, voters and (potential) victims of crime to make the case to rebalance justice and support victims. Written for the millions of victims of crime and their friends and families, it helps to transform an antiquated system of criminal and civil justice into a modern system that is just and fair, shifting from neglect to respect and support. While some laws in the USA and elsewhere do support victims by providing assistance, compensation, and protection from the accused, this book also sheds a harsh light upon their inadequate implementation. Police services must catch crooks but make victims their client. Courts must balance rights for defendants and victims. Services for women, children and elderly victims must be adequately funded. Restitution from offenders must be ordered and collected, not overlooked. Fair compensation from the state must change from a secret to a given. The prevention of victimization must be the budget priority not mass incarceration. Despite the speeches and the United Nations norms, governments still leave most victims of crime without basic information, support, and assistance, let alone respect and remedies in courts. If you are not yet one of those victims of crime, social responsibility requires you to ensure that your country's systems of justice are fair to those who are and for them, this book provides an answer.

Violent crime tragically ruins lives and communities, yet we know how to stop it and help victims. Governments agree on how to get results at the United Nations, but do not act locally. Science and Secrets of Ending Violent Crime is the result of a lifetime career working to get violence prevention science applied and frustration with too many preventable tragedies. Irvin Waller explains the proven solutions that tackle the causes of violence, and, ways to persuade politicians to buy-in to invest in the appropriate solutions. Investing in effective violence prevention is more affordable and successful than policymakers think; a modest equivalent of 10 percent of what they spend on police, courts, and corrections will do it and often before the next election! Violence prevention is achievable because voters, contrary to what the media tells us, want much more than reaction, they want prevention. Irvin Waller shines a light on the challenges of violent crime, and shows how to reduce and ultimately stop it by considering how governments spend our money, manage our cities, and legislate our community safety. Waller brings the truth to the reader, increasing not only their knowledge of the problem at hand but introducing practical ways to get more involved in making our world free from violence.

Each year 24 million Americans are victims of crime. U.S. taxpayers spend more and more each year on police, prisons and judges--a record $200 billion at last count. They incarcerate more and more persons each year--two million plus. Yet prestigious commissions show not only that this standard way of responding to crime is ineffective but that there is scientific proof that many projects that tackle risk factors that cause crime are effective. Rather than sending more people to jail or hiring more and more police, the author, and the research, shows that addressing problems in the community does more to prevent crime. This timely book illustrates in convincing detail what needs to be done to prevent crime and keep people out of prison. Here, Waller shows that hiring public health nurses and investing in helping youth at risk to complete school and get job training is better than hiring more police; preventing family violence, banning hand guns and dealing with drugs through public health saves more lives than incarceration; getting close neighbors to watch out for us and better industrial design are more effective than criminal courts; smarter policing is better than more police; paying for services to support victims and guaranteeing them rights is better than more rhetoric. Addressing the social issues that lead to crime, rather than addressing crime after it happens, or putting stiffer penalties in place, will contribute to creating a safer society and to keeping kids and adults from taking the wrong path toward a life of crime.