Customer Reviews

BODY COUNT: Moral Poverty...And How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs

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I couldn't agree more with the last two reader reviews, and would like to add a bit more. This work has two fatal flaws that undermine all of his analysis. It consistenly confuses correlation and causality, and deliberatly ignores portions of counter-arguments inconvenient to Bennett's conclusion.

Even using government funded studies, developed no doubt by Bennett's ideological kin, his defense of marijuana prohibition relies on an abusurd logical extension. First he shows that cocaine is a cause of violence. This is already a tenuous position in and of itself since he does nothing to disprove that cocaine prohibition is not responsible for more violence than the drug's pharmacological properties. The he relies on the long-defunct gateway theory to show that a lax approach to marijuana will generate thousands more violent cocaine addicts. Thus, marijuana must be thoroughly repressed. Yeah, obviously... no other way around that one.

He states with indignation that more 15-18 year olds see marijuana as relatively harmless than any time in the preceeding decade and a half. Well, unfortunately even a moral fiat from the good Dr. Bennett cannot change the fact that the perception of pot as relatively harmless is, for the most part, accurate; no matter how uncomfortable it may make him.

What about the claims that supply side drug interdiction is fatally flawed as a long term strategy? No worries, according to Body Count, since it worked in the very short run in 1992, it must be effective.

The 60% drop in casual drug use between 1980 and 1992 a smashing success, akin to saving 60% of the rainforest or preventing 60% of unwanted pregnancies? You bet, of course Bennett fails to mention that the same period saw an unprecedented rise in drug market violence, an INCREASING number of 'hard core' drug abusers, destruction of civil liberties, a mushrooming prison population, the shredding of urban America's remaining social fabric, the demonization of blacks and junkies as drug war enemies, skyrocketing quantities of preventable and drug related AIDS cases, a burgeoning culture of intolerance, and the list goes on.

To top it all off, in this book Bennett has the gall to criticize the media for not depicting the drug war as a success, when he, himself was frequently the one on national tv using fear-mongering rhetoric to drive the perception of a failing drug war.

This is perhaps the most incoherent book I have ever read regarding drug policy. "Except for some advocates of drug legalization, no on seriously doubts that drug abuse kills and injures millions of Americans and their children each year." - William J. Bennett co-author of "Body Count," page 19. The authors insist in Body Count that "[R]igorous and empirical data are the foundation for our analysis and the discussion that follows. As you will see, this book is chock-full of the latest and most reliable facts, figures, charts, and graphs about violent crime and drugs. To you the reader we say: bear with us. These numbers are crucial-crucial because we believe that any fruitful discussion about crime and punishment in America should proceed from a proper regard for facts." No disagreement with respect to that last sentence. Body Count, however, repeatedly offers up one correlation mistake after another. Bennett et al begin with a lengthy and lurid recounting of unspeakable, headline-grabbing recent violent crimes: from drive-by shootings to thrill-killings to horrific tales of child abuse. This is followed by a segment entitled Liquor, Disorder, and Crime, then a chapter on Restraining and Punishing Street Criminals. Only after 136 numbing pages of poignant crime victim vignettes and "hard" yet irrelevant data, do the authors get to their fundamental assertion (Chapter 4, Drugs, Crime, and Character): that illicit drug use is caused by and causes what they call "moral poverty," and by direct implication, that drug use causes the bulk of our crime problem. "If one wants to know the immediate causes of much of America's moral poverty, the destruction of large parts of our inner cities, and its record-high crime rates, it is impossible to overlook drug use" (pg. 137). For these authors, illicit drugs are more or less circularly bad because they are illicit, illicit because they are bad. More to the point, drugs are bad because they are "pleasurable" (pg. 141) and that "drug use fosters moral poverty and remorseless criminality; that drug use destroys character and brutalizes the lives of users and those around them" (pg. 139). Total abstinence is the only solution for Bennett, DiIulio, and Walters. Never mind that the vast majority of illicit drug users commit no crimes other than their acquisition and use of drugs. Never mind that the National Academy of Sciences recently concluded (see Under the Influence? Drugs and the American Workforce) that "[M]ost alcohol and other drug users do not develop patterns of clinically defined abuse or dependence." This lamentable book is shot through with the usual weasel words and phrases such as "fosters," "associated with," "linked to," "correlated with," and so forth ad nauseum. The "hard data" come from the usual lineup of suspect partisan sources. The authors' conclusions? More enforcement; harsh punishment for even occasional recreational drug use; drug testing; zero tolerance; dismissal out-of-hand of all talk of "root causes" (other than their own take on the topic); more Loving-Two-Parent-Norman-Rockwell-Families teaching Just-Don't-Do-It; more God in our lives. More empirical and policy baloney of the sort this book typifies.

William Bennett must have loved that famous Scorsese film "Taxi Driver."

Here we see William Bennett muttering, perhaps a wee bit more eloquent than Scorsese's protagonist, at the "dirt" and "scum" and "filth" of "criminals," all the while ignoring their own trails of blood and sorrow.

Bennett's policies have helped created an economic climate where one can make a fortune selling crack and crystal meth.

'Nuff said about Bennett's "morality."

Filled with useful information, this book blows away some of the standard liberal myths about crime - such as that "prison doesn't work" and "guns cause crime". But they also prove their even-handedness by dealing to a few standard conservative myths too However, I'd have to add that I disagree with some of the (lesser) conclusions drawn by the authors in the final chapter, particularly regarding "moral poverty" and the war on drugs. All the same, they did succeed in making me re-evaluate my position on drugs considerably. The book was worth buying for all the data in it alone, particularly the appendix with criminal histories of 40 "low-level" offenders - most illuminating! All the rest is a bonus, and it is largely clearly and cogently argued. It does have to be said that the religious viewpoint of the authors does tend to show at times, particularly in the final chapter, which will tend to put some people off (myself included!). Don't let this blind you to the many valid points they have to make, however.

I wish William Bennett would get a life. Ever since he failed to score with Janis Joplin he has been an increasingly irritating nanny to the rest of society. This book is so far from the reality of drugs and crime that it is hard for me to imagine how the publishers who print this garbage can sleep at night. It is right wing pornography at its worst. The book consistently distorts its statistics, it seeks to treat what is clearly a severe medical problem, addiction, with violent, anti-civil rights solutions. In a just society, people like Mr. Bennett and his ilk would be in jail.

No, this book won't play well with the MTV genertation. But it obviously contains a powerful message to have elicited such venom from the "with it" reviewers of the national media.

The core of this work is that moral standards, not materialism, ensure safe and orderly communities. The lack of morality and socialization of young people results in a significant increase in crime, disorder and fear. If potential readers are concerned about the necessity of safe communities, this book is worthwhile.

Does the Nike ad that stated, "Just do it!" seem vaguely disturbing? Does that fact that many people are just doing whatever pops into their heads (including destructive and violent behavior) worry you? Do you wonder whether our society will "tolerate" itself into chaos? This work can provide not only insight, but some answers, too.

The people whose heroes are Dennis Rodman or the Spice Girls won't like this book. Members of "Act U! p" will find it hersesy. Social bureaucrats will be appalled. But it's worth reading just to find out what set the self-indulgent, neo-intelligentsia howling!

So if it's not the handicaps we've imposed on cops and prosecutors, and it's not institutionalized racism, and it's not material want, then what is the fundamental cause of predatory street crime.

Moral poverty.

...[M]oral poverty is the poverty of being without loving, capable, responsible adults who teach you right from wrong; the poverty of being without parents and other authorities who habituate you to feel joy at others' joy, pain at others' pain, satisfaction when you do right, remorse when you do wrong; the poverty of growing up in the virtual absence of people who teach morality by their own everyday example and who insist that you follow suit. ...

The twin character scars left by moral poverty--lack of impulse control and lack of empathy--reinforce each other and make it far more likely that the individual will succumb to either the temptations of crime, or the blandishments of drugs, or, as so often happens, both. -Body Count

One of the more comforting aspects of conservatism is that you can adopt one set of principles--most elements of which are hundreds (capitalism and republican democracy) or even thousands (10 Commandments, Golden Rule, Sermon on the Mount) of years old, and have stood the test of time--and then stick with it your whole adult life. At any given moment several of the positions you adhere to will certainly be out of favor, but just as surely the tide will eventually turn back in your favor. New ideas and fancy fads will come and go, leaving trend-sucking liberals with their heads spinning, but you can just stick to your guns and ignore them all, secure in the knowledge that folks will eventually return to their senses and come scurrying back to the timeless virtues. This is especially the case when it comes to Crime and Punishment. Few issues, other than the equally intractable Taxation and Education, have been so susceptible over the years to "innovative" thinking and "radical" solutions as the problem of Crime. But time and again we all end up returning to the conservative mantra : what's needed are a societal emphasis on loving families and traditional morality, vigorous law enforcement, and harsh punishments.

This book then is an unsurprising call for a return to these first principles, in particular a clarion call for an effort to combat moral poverty, and, equally unsurprisingly, its policy prescriptions are currently back in vogue. Between the candidacy of Joe Lieberman and the victory of George W. Bush, religious belief is once again a central part of our national debate, morality is a hot topic, and a broad consensus has formed around the idea that faith-based institutions, with their manifest moral component, are better at delivering social services than government bureaucracies. Coauthor John DiIulio has, in fact, been named to be the coordinator of President Bush's Faith Based Initiative. And, what with now former President Clinton mired in a new scandal (which will inevitably come to be known as Pardongate) Bill Bennett is popping up all over the networks and editorial pages, getting to say, "I told you so" and preach the importance of morality in public life.

Meanwhile, in New York City, Rudy Guliani has proven that crime can be reduced and civic manners restored by relentlessly prosecuting even minor infractions. Perhaps most importantly, reforms like building more prisons, Three Strikes and You're Out, mandatory sentencing, and incarcerating even low level drug offenders, have helped to bring about a tremendous reduction in crime rates. It would seem that, in a sense, this book has been made superfluous by the very success of the ideas it advocates.

But never fear, already we hear calls to relax drug laws (many of them fueled by the new movie Traffic) amidst hand-wringing over the burgeoning prison population. Perhaps the best aspect of this book is that the authors actually go beyond just drugs and demonstrate the close connection between alcohol and crime. One of the most effective arguments of those who support legalization of drugs is the comparison to alcohol. The authors head off this line of reasoning by indicting alcohol too. You've got to admire a conservatism so fierce and intellectually honest that it's basically willing to refight some of the battles of Prohibition.

Another phenomenon we've witnessed in recent years is one of those patented psychic disconnects on the part of liberals that we conservatives so treasure, folks on the Left have actually taken to arguing that the statistics showing a drop in crime can not be right because of the size of the current prison population. Their characteristically fuzzy logic maintains that if crime really were going down there would perforce be less people in prison. This confusion over cause and effect, obvious as it seems, and the accompanying appeals to middle class white guilt will inevitably lead to an eventual relaxing of our guard and the pendulum will swing back towards leniency and permissiveness.

This book is somewhat dated now, because of its reliance on statistics and because too much of what it has to say has been adopted as public policy, but put it on a shelf for a few years and you'll be able to take it down during the next explosion in crime. Think of public policy making as a huge game of "Whack the Mole" conservatives always remain poised with the same hammer (a consistent set of ideas) and periodically have to bang away with the hammer when experimentation with liberal ideas manages to unleash a plague of vermin. Lift this book and you wield the hammer.

GRADE : B-