by William J. Bennett

About the author: William J. Bennett is a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the cochairman of the National Council on Crime in America, a bipartisan think tank.

During the past 25 years, much of the crime debate has been dominated by criminologists who are philosophically opposed to punishment. In an attempt to advance their agenda, they have perpetrated a wide array of myths. The 1996 report of the bipartisan Council on Crime in America is an attempt to provide an alternative: a rigorous, empirical, real-world analysis of the current state of crime and punishment.

Steps to Preventing Crime

The report tells us that the nation faces at least three distinct but related crime challenges: preventing at-risk children from becoming criminals, protecting innocent people from becoming crime victims and restraining convicted criminals who are under...