Crime time.

• Author: Wooster, Martin Morse
• Position: Crime fighting

CRIME HAS BECOME THE most hotly contested social policy issue of the 1990s, but the debate is decidedly overheated. Statistics issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department suggest that if you live in an area that isn't infested by drug dealers (and, of course, if you don't happen to be a drug dealer), your odds of being a victim of violent crime are about the same as they were 10 years ago.

How has crime fighting become such a prominent issue without a growing group of victims of crime? The most important reason is a gradual change in the attitudes of the Democratic Party. Until 1985, it was easy to tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans on crime issues. Democrats were the namby-pamby, goo-goo eggheads who thought hardened criminals could become good citizens with plenty of Prozac, hugs, and herb tea. The Republicans were the tough-as-nails types who delighted in tossing people in jail and throwing away the key, even if the jails didn't have keys.

But in the early '90s many Democrats became what Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne called "Kojak liberals," trying to show that they were as tough on crime as their Republican rivals. As a result, far too many campaigns hinge on how eager the candidates are to send people to jail.

As president, Bill Clinton continues the effort he began as governor of Arkansas to be a no-nonsense crime fighter. This concern is due in part to his other failures. Ruth Shalit reports in the July 18 New Republic that high-ranking Clinton staffers were convinced that, if other administration proposals failed, the crime bill could be, in the words of a senior Justice Department aide, "the major domestic accomplishment of Clinton's first term....If health care doesn't work, if welfare reform doesn't work, this [crime bill] is going to be the thing."

While one branch of the government says it's fighting crime, other government agencies are turning previously law-abiding citizens into "criminals" by creating more punitive regulations. As James V. DeLong observes in the March American Enterprise, many activities that were not illegal 10 years ago now are. Landlords can have their buildings seized if tenants are found using drugs. People who don't properly fill out forms required under the Clean Air Act can go to jail. Employees of corporations can be considered criminals if they can't tell the courts what a petty cash fund was used for, or why a particular investment doesn't...