Wilson, Jordan Discuss Crime And Deterrence

In what he later termed an "ironic turn of events", James Q. Wilson, Shattuck Professor of Government, argued at the Law Forum last night that law enforcement deters crime, while Boston Police Commissioner Joseph Jordan argued that tough prison sentences do not affect crime rates.

The third member of the panel, trial attorney and author George V. Higgins, quoted G. Gordon Liddy, his client, saying, "Prison never corrected anybody. Occasionally, some one decides to give up a life of crime voluntarily, but usually because he is pretty bad at it."

On the Beat

Wilson argued that inverse relationships between crime and arrest rates cannot be considered the result of an overburdened police force with lower efficiency because he said the average policeman makes only five felony arrests a year.

He outlined various strategies for deploying policemen, and argued that an aggressive, visible police force can effectively deter crime.

Jordan, who said he was sitting during his speech "to make a harder target" in view of recent student-police relations in Boston, said that the failure of the present war on crime being waged in the Combat Zone shows that law enforcement doesn't deter crime, at least "not to the extent we would like."

The hour-long question and answer session which followed the three prepared speeches focused on the causes of crime and the possibility of rehabilitating criminals.

Asked about the possibilities for success of such rehabilitation programs, Wilson replied, "We should expand our efforts for the right find of offenders, but we shouldn't have false hopes on how well they work."