Reihan: Tough on Crime, Tough on the Causes of Crime

That was the great Blairite turn of phrase that marked helped define New Labour and the Third Way more broadly: a smart approach to crime involves more than a head-busting "prison works" approach built on mass arrests. Keep in mind that offenders tend to come from high-poverty, high-crime neighborhoods where the taboo against law-breaking has already been badly undermined by mass arrests. So thank goodness Los Angeles is pursuing a different strategy. Read Brad Plumer for the broader context.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2007/10/reihan-tough-on-crime-tough-on-the-causes-of-crime/54853/