ABSTRACT
The shift from “everything works” to “nothing works” in ideology and public policy illustrates a dualistic fallacy in crime policy by which extremes distort understanding and the “either/or” choice frustrates rational thinking and polarizes discussion and debate on crime. When complex issues are simplified into dichotomies, and citizens and policymakers are presented with limited choices, policy is distorted and criminal justice fails to achieve or maintain balance in crime control efforts. The image of “evil” rather than “sick” helped criminalize addiction and drug use. Supply reduction and demand reduction have predominated the war on drugs. The problems of drugs and crime, however, have continued to be major challenges to criminal justice. In the 1990s and 2000s, the main criminal justice and treatment initiative is the drug court. The harm reduction model is another type of approach that offers an alternative to both demand and supply reductions and avoids the legalization debate.
