What is most troubling about war and crime is that they involve domination of some people by others. Indeed, war and crime are the most severe forms of domination that exist. My research is about the idea that good governance should reduce the amount of domination in the world.

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Inequality, Crime, and Public Policy (1979) is an empirical and theoretical study of the relationship between inequality and crime. More unequal societies have higher rates of crimes of the powerless and crimes of the powerful. Unequal societies have more crimes of domination and crimes of those who are dominated, more crime by those who exploit and more crime by those who are exploited.

Prisons, Education and Work (1980) was my next book that followed up the implication that prisoners could be and should be given special assistance with education and job placement.

My book with Bina D’Costa, Cascades of Violence (2018), seeks to reconcile the evidence that while inequality is a better predictor of crime than poverty, poverty is a better predictor of war than inequality. Because of the way war and crime cascade into each other, as well as certain methodological considerations, poverty reduction and inequality reduction are almost certainly useful ways to help reduce the incidence of both crime and war.

KEY REFERENCES (click on title to download free pdf)