ALLOCATING RESOURCES AMONG PRISONS AND SOCIAL PROGRAMS IN THE BATTLE AGAINST CRIME

This article evaluates the cost and crime-reducing potential of prison s and social spending, setting forth the conditions under which a shif t in resources from an expanding prison population into social spendin g would lead to a reduction in total crime. Preschool enrichment progr ams coupled with family intervention have generated impressive results in reducing crime in a number of different studies. Targeting of reso urces toward those children most at risk of criminal behavior is neces sary to generate cost-effective crime reduction, but this may be diffi cult to achieve because of political or constitutional constraints. Gi ven precise targeting, and if a broadly implemented preschool program (more enriched than the current Head Start program) could generate hal f the crime-reduction benefits achieved in the pilot studies, then cut ting spending on prisons and using the savings to fund intensive presc hool education would reduce crime. The elasticity of crime with respec t to incarceration is taken to be .15.