This book examines the US crime problem and the resulting policies as a political and cultural issue. It draws on a wide range of scholarship, including the representation of crime in political discourse, the mass media, and public opinion. It proposes that the punitive turn in crime policy is not just the result of a worsening crime problem or an increasingly fearful and vengeful public, but reflects efforts by national politicians to shift public policy on a variety of social problems toward harsher, more repressive solutions.