What social policies might be most effective in bringing down the crime rate?.
Well first to bring down the crime rate society must redefine what is a crime. According to the consensus view, crimes are behaviors considered harmful by a majority of citizens that because of their potentential for causing social harm have been controlled or prohibited by the existing criminal law. Some people believe that the law and the concept of crime is influenced by those who hold social power and use it to reflect their way of thinking. But the majority does not consider what is defining by the law as a crime a criminal act. For example gambling on sports is considered a crime but in actually it is not view as a crime by the majority of society because it does not hurt society at large. The same goes for prostitution and marijuana use. The classic example is ticket scalping. Although it is considered a crime in the eyes of the law to average citizen its not considered a crime nor even immoral. Ticket scalping does not hurt society at large. .
To lower the crime rate the government should redirect their resources on providing social programs such as after school tutoring, counseling for drug prevention. Resources should not be directed toward prosecuting the man who get caught with a small amount of drugs that he was going use for personal use and treating the drug kingpins lenient because they can afford the high powered attorney. Police departments should not waste valuable time on stings that go after prostitutes and low-level drug offenders. This money and man-hours can be used to start social programs such as job training and after school programs that help provide communities with jobs and hope. But as long as this cat and mouse and game of catching low-level criminal for the sakes of padding the stats exist crime will always be on the rise.