My Twelve Imperatives

Abstract

This final chapter contains my twelve key imperatives for policymakers, not one of which involves expanding the criminal justice mechanisms (police, prosecutions, courts, and corrections) that are usually described by political voices as the only means to defeat crime and general lawlessness. The chapter adopts the idea, proffered by Morris and Hawkins in their 1970 book, that ‘honest politicians’ can and should do something about crime from a social justice perspective. That will not happen unless and until they have the courage of their convictions. The chapter explains how every dollar poorly spent in the crime reductive quest is the result of a deliberate political choice, and that dollar is then no longer available for the preferred and evidence-based options. The chapter concludes with the oft repeated (and accurate) axiom that society cannot arrest and imprison its way out of crime. Our political leaders must lead, not follow, in promoting this axiom.