Dealing with crime is everyone's business. It demands a clear law enforcement response combined with significant efforts to address the root causes of crime, particularly poverty, racism, and overwhelmed families. As a society, we are spending the bulk of our resources on the most expensive response: incarceration. Traditional approaches to crime need to address the differences between men and women as these differences translate to appropriate reactions by the criminal justice system. For example, the Rockefeller drug laws in New York were meant to incarcerate high-level drug pushers for long terms. Instead, women in financial or family crises have been easy dupes for dealers who never handle their own drugs. These women do not dispute their guilt, but is their crime worth a 15-year minimum? Certainly, the public needs to make informed decisions about which women should be in prison and for how long and which women might be dealt with differently.
Black silent majority: the Rockefeller drug laws and the politics of punishment