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The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America
By Barry Latzer
A compelling case can be made that violent crime, especially after the 1960s, was one of the most significant domestic issues in the United States. Indeed, few issues had as profound an effect on American life in the last third of the twentieth century. After 1965, crime rose to such levels that it frightened virtually all Americans and prompted significant alterations in everyday behaviors and even lifestyles. The risk of being mugged was a concern when Americans chose places to live and schools for their children, selected commuter routes to work, and planned their leisure activities. In some locales, people were afraid to leave their dwellings at any time, day or night, even to go to the market. In the worst of the post-1960s crime wave, Americans spent part of each day literally looking back over their shoulders.
The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America is the first book to comprehensively examine this important phenomenon over the entire postwar era. It combines a social history of the United States with the insights of criminology and examines the relationship between rising and falling crime and such historical developments as the postwar economic boom, suburbanization and the rise of the middle class, baby booms and busts, war and antiwar protest, the urbanization of minorities, and more.
Barry Latzer is Emeritus Professor of Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and a former member of the Doctoral Faculty in Criminal Justice at the CUNY Graduate School and University Center.
"The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America, dealing mostly but not entirely with the period from WWII to the present, is a rare combination of sophisticated analysis and compelling prose. Professor Latzer convincingly cuts through the prejudices, passions, and politics surrounding both popular and scholarly explanations of this controversial subject. A magnificent achievement."
Roger Lane
Professor Emeritus of History at Haverford College
"Violent crime rates have varied greatly in America over the past 75 years and their fluctuations have been entangled in the complex politics of race, ethnicity and class. Latzer takes us on a well-documented journey through these developments and provides a balanced account of the trends and their correlates—a welcome approach to an issue that is often contentious."
Gary LaFree
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland
"[Latzer] insists that quantitative criminology cannot 'replace a deep knowledge of a society, its particular history, and the workings of its criminal justice system.' That deep knowledge is on display in this impressive volume."
Joseph M. Bessette
Alice Tweed Tuohy Professor of Government and Ethics at Claremont McKenna College
"A masterfully researched and written work that capably demonstrates the importance of history in the study of crime. Professor Latzer is to be commended for developing an exhaustively researched yet eminently readable account that should be mandatory reading for any scholar of crime and violence in the United States."
Samuel Bieler