Reducing crime through prevention not incarceration

This policy essay by William J. Bratton, former Commissioner of the NYPD and Chief of LAPD, provides a useful overview of the key issues involved in determining how to address crime and provides an interesting research agenda for exploring the potential impact of options that favor policing and reduce reliance on incarceration. Changing the current focus from one that presumes that increased incarceration results in crime reduction to one that works to prevent crime requires a paradigm shift of major proportions. It is worthy of consideration.