Crime control programs in the United States: finding alternatives and zigzags of development

The scientific and historical analysis of the American crime control strategy from the middle of the last century and till the present time shows an ongoing series of efforts to find the best ways to achieve its effectiveness. This problem has been addressed and is being addressed by the government agencies (the US Department of justice), specialized criminological centers and research units of American universities. According to the author of the article, the most remarkable trend in their search was the gradually forming belief in the need for a shift in emphasis in the implementation of crime control. It is about understanding of the relevance of the transition from eclectic, disparate, more often criminal repression measures - to the creation of complex federal, regional and local programs of crime control, which provide for significant strengthening of the role of social services and the development of progressive forms of resocialization of criminals. In the meantime, there are grounds to state that the following main characteristics of the current situation are still contradictory. On the one hand, there is a desire of the United States to implement new principles and forms in the control of crime, and on the other hand, there is a lack of system and separation of efforts made by the state and society to implement them in practice. At the same time, the antagonism between the two conceptual approaches to the formulation of priority methods for countering crime remains unresolved. This is an antagonism between criminological prevention and the traditional criminal-repressive approach to solving this problem on the part of criminal justice.