Book Review: Crime Prevention Studies: Vol. 17. Understanding and Preventing Car Theft

• Date: 01 March 2007
• Author: Dale Spencer
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567707299375
• Published date: 01 March 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

that diverts attention from the “real causes of crime” and secures resources for the criminal justice

state apparatus. Two consistent themes of the book are that as U.S. crime policy is exported around

the world, the tendency will be for increasingly repressive policies to be adopted and that these poli-

cies will have either no impact on crime or a harmful effect on crime and public safety. Such a per-

spective may have made a great deal of sense written in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At that time,

the United States had rates of violent crime and incarceration that exceeded those of other industri-

alized democracies. Since that time, however, U.S. crime rates, including violent crime rates, have

plummeted. Policy makers and criminal justice officials from around the globe have looked at the

experience of New York City and asked, Is it zero-tolerance policing, Computerized Statistics (more

commonly known as COMPSTAT), imprisonment, the economy, or something else? Examination of

crime trends and crime policy from a global perspective could be very helpful in addressing these

types of policy issues. Indeed, the final chapter of the book, by David Dixon and Lisa Maher, pro-

vides a very insightful look at policy influence moving from New York City to Sydney, Australia,

with attention given to the impact on crime. Unfortunately, with this exception, readers will have to

go elsewhere because the assumption running through the chapters of this volume is that crime con-

trol policy that relies on or extends the power of the state can only be negative. To even pose the

question of whether state crime control policies other than abandoning crime control and moving

toward social justice models could reduce crime and enhance public safety is outside the framing

scope of the current volume.

One is reminded of the lessons of the intelligence failures in the United States prior to September

11, 2001: The absence of multiple perspectives can lead to groupthink. In the marketplace of ideas,

only one set of perspectives is offered in this book. In brief, U.S. crime policy is both unjust and inef-

fective and reflects the interests of politicians seeking power (often in alliance with Christian conser-

vatives). Readers interested in a polemic about the dangers of U.S. hegemonic crime control policy

will greatly appreciate this volume. Readers interested in both theory and empirical test of theory

about the diffusion and impact of crime control policy will have to hope that researchers inspired by

Criminal Justice and Political Cultures will subject the ideas presented in this collection to such a test.

Edmund F. McGarrell

Michigan State University, East Lansing

Maxfield, M. G., & Clarke, R. V. (Eds.). (2004) Crime Prevention Studies: Vol. 17.

Understanding and Preventing Car Theft. Collumpton, Devon, UK: Willan.

DOI: 10.1177/1057567707299375

This edited volume provides a succinct and lucid account of crime prevention issues as they relate

to automotive theft. It is international in scope. Readers are made aware of key issues faced by pri-

vate and public agencies engaged in car theft prevention. In addition, several articles in the volume

explicate the techniques currently used in car theft prevention efforts. Exclusively focused on issues

related to automotive theft prevention, Understanding and Preventing Car Theft fills a relative

lacuna in the criminological literature. Ronald V. Clarke is arguably the foremost expert in this area,

as shown in his prior publications. The book emerges from the 2003 International Conference on

Auto Theft, sponsored by the Police Institute of the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice in Newark,

New Jersey, which served as the driving force behind the Crime Prevention Studies series. In bring-

ing together manifold representatives from criminal justice agencies and academic institutions, this

book provides a useful resource for scholars and practitioners interested in car theft prevention

60 International Criminal Justice Review