On Crime and the Liberals: An Exchange

Elliott Currie criticizes conservatives, of which he takes me to be a leading representative, for their views on crime (“Crime and the Conservatives,” Dissent, Fall 1985). Since I have not yet seen Mr. Currie’s book, I do not know what his views are, but some of them can, perhaps, be inferred from how he criticizes mine. If my inferences are correct, and if Mr. Currie is to be taken as a representative of liberal or socialist thought, then the liberal or socialist pos...