1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910305552503321

Autore

Lafree Gary

Titolo

Losing Legitimacy : Street Crime And The Decline Of Social Institutions In America / / Gary Lafree

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London : , : Taylor and Francis, , 2018

ISBN

0-429-97876-6

0-8133-3450-0

0-429-49913-2

0-429-96768-3

1-4294-9070-5

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (240 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Crime & Society

Disciplina

364.973

Soggetti

Crime - United States

United States Social conditions 1980-2020

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

chapter one Understanding Postwar Crime Trends / Gary LaFree -- chapter two Riding the Wave -- Street Crime Trends in Postwar America / Gary LaFree -- chapter three Offender Characteristics and Crime Trends in Postwar America / Gary LaFree -- chapter four Evaluating Common Explanations of Crime / Gary LaFree -- chapter five Crime and Social Institutions / Gary LaFree -- chapter six Crime and American Political Institutions / Gary LaFree -- chapter seven Crime and American Economic Institutions / Gary LaFree -- chapter eight Crime and Changes in the American Family / Gary LaFree -- chapter nine Institutional Responses to the Legitimacy Crisis -- Criminal Justice, Education, and Welfare / Gary LaFree -- chapter ten Crime and Institutional Legitimacy in Postwar America / Gary LaFree.

Sommario/riassunto

"In the past fifty years, street crime rates in America have increased eightfold. These increases were historically patterned, were often very rapid, and had a disproportionate impact on African Americans. Much of the crime explosion took place in a space of just ten years beginning in the early 1960s. Common explanation's based on biological impulses, psychological drives, or slow-moving social indicators cannot



explain the speed or timing of these changes or their disproportionate impact on racial minorities. Using unique data that span half a century, Gary LaFree argues that social institutions are the key to understanding the U.S. crime wave. Crime increased along with growing political distrust, economic stress, and family disintegration. These changes were especially pronounced for racial minorities. American society responded by investing more in criminal justice, education, and welfare institutions. Stabilization of traditional social institutions and the effects of new institutional spending account for the modest crime declines of the 1990s."--Provided by publisher.