Books, Arts & Manners: Danger Ahead

Crime and Punishment in American History, by Lawrence M. Friedman (Basic, 577 pp., $30)

AMERICA has never been notably law abiding, but crime now worries ordinary citizens a lot. They are not worrying needlessly. In 1990, over 14 million serious crimes were reported to law-enforcement agencies around the nation. That comes to almost thirty serious crimes reported per minute. And reported crimes are just the tip of an iceberg of illegality ranging from malevolent to annoying—from killing and maiming to stealing and raping to the defacing of public surfaces.

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Richard J. Herrnstein

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Crime and Punishment in American History, by Lawrence M. Friedman (Basic, 577 pp., $30)

AMERICA has never been notably law abiding, but crime now worries ordinary citizens a lot. They are not worrying needlessly. In 1990, over 14 million serious crimes were reported to law-enforcement agencies around the nation. That comes to almost thirty serious crimes reported per minute. And reported crimes are just the tip of an iceberg of illegality ranging from malevolent to annoying—from killing and maiming to stealing and raping to the defacing of public surfaces.