Reviews for Handbook of scales for research in crime and delinquency

The average rating for Handbook of scales for research in crime and delinquency based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-03 00:00:00 Jermon Williams The author, David Stockman, was the primary implementer of supply side economics during the early Reagan years. As director of Office of Management and Budget he found himself butting heads with special interest forces that were corrupting his supply side ideology. He became greatly alarmed at projections of exploding deficits due to steep tax cuts that were not compensated for by commensurate spending cuts. On the plus side the initial stimulus did get the economy moving for a few years. On the negative side the huge government debt we have today began growing exponentially under Reagan, hence the subtitle of the book - Why The Reagan Revolution Failed. My own take on this is that many small government ideologues don't mind the huge government debt because it is a standing reason to keep pushing small government. There are two buttons these ideologues like to push, button one is tax cuts (primary reason for large government debt) and button two is small government (primary solution to address government debt). Thus this ideology can butter its bread on both sides. Fast forward to today, and we find the same ideology out there despite thirty some years showing it is a failed, and surreptitiously corrupt ideology. The ideology goes like this - Let's cut taxes because this is pro growth and the tax cuts will more than pay for themselves - To address government debt let's underfund government, but don't underfund government programs that my political base likes - and oh by the way, give most of those tax cuts to the wealthy because this will trickle down to the middle class and beyond. So we have a circular logic that all government is ineffective and inefficient, and we can choke the beast with underfunding which makes things even worse, thus further justifying the initial premise that all government is ineffective and inefficient. The last major tax overhaul was done under Reagan. Since then the "rocket science" tax code has grown to more than 60,000 pages as special interests weighed in. We do need to overhaul the tax code again, but I fear history will repeat itself the overhaul will not be balanced for the common good over the long haul.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-12-04 00:00:00 Adam Hendricks 19 Jan. 2017 - My thoughts 30 years after reading this book: 1. It was a gripping and exemplary history of how this OMB Director in the first Reagan term actually tried to implement Reagan's proposed cuts in the Fed. budget and departments. 2. It showed how most of Reagan's cabinet appointees were far from part of the process to cut the budget, but were rather on the "receiving end" of the cuts, and not happy or supportive. 3. Weinberger (Defense) AND Haig (State) were particularly egregious offenders of Reagan's overall policy of cutting government, and purposely intimidated Stockman and his allies (Paul Craig Roberts and Martin Anderson) to stem any cuts in their departments. 4. Stockman made a very solid case for all the cuts. I have very warm memories of his vigor and comprehension of the need for and desirability of the cuts. From what I remember, he laid out the overwhelming benefits to society from the cuts, far outweighing the downsides to specific bureaucrats or other constituencies. 5. The main problem I had with the book was that it showed that Stockman never understood that any tax increases, which he advocated, would be totally counter-productive to the cuts in spending, and would slow down the economy and needed recovery. He thought tax increases were important, combined with the cuts in spending, to balance the budget. He totally ignored (probably more a fundamental misunderstanding than ignorance) that any increase in taxes would counter the forces for economic freedom and growth of the economy. Making the government smaller overall and especially a smaller part of the economy is key to continuing growth, productivity, innovation, justice and freedom. You know, the kinds of things that people immigrated to America for, fought a revolution to preserve and prospered under over a span of more than 200 years! 6. For these reasons above, I remember loving and hating the book, depending on the passage. I remember the first half or more being the good part - description of his life and the spending cuts process, though frustrating in many ways, because of the opposition from Reagan's own appointees. The second half was his realization that the cuts would not be deep enough, that "politics" was getting in the way, so deficits and increases to the national debt would be coming. At this point his personal turn from the Reagan Admin. was to announce this to Congress/press(?) and also to support tax increases. The famous "taking out to the wood shed" scene played out, where Reagan had to fire him, was described from personal experience. So - I highly recommend the book for historical insight, and for Stockman's excellent explanations of the benefits and need for government spending cuts, and for knowing just the kind of person Stockman is. Being aware of the massive flaw in Stockman is demonstrated by the later parts of the book and exhibited in his later career in investment banking and trying to own/run an auto parts manufacturer. It seemed to me an incredible betrayal, within Stockman's own philosophy or at least to general economics, to have misunderstood the importance of tax cuts so fundamentally. ------------- Stockman went on to work in investment banking with Peter Peterson, another even more dubious character, at Blackstone Group. His record there was mixed, but then he went on to found his own Investment group, which did fine for a while, but then invested in an auto industry supplier, and went bankrupt during one of the inevitable and fairly well documented difficult industry extended down-turns. After some significant time, he came back, with a splash, and started speaking and writing about the looming problem of government spending and the deficit. He had found out about and studied, to some extent, Free Market/Austrian Economics in the meantime, and so his arguments for cutting government spending are even more powerful and insightful now. HOWEVER, he still appears to be hung-up and totally confused on the issue of taxes and the "morality" of the deficit/debt. I remember reading and seeing interviews he granted just before and after his new book release on this subject (with Bill Moyers) and just being incredibly disgusted, especially in light of his increased knowledge and articulation of Austrian insights in how the business cycle works. He cannot plead ignorance of the better ideas at all now. So, anyone who reads Stockman should be totally aware of this horrible dichotomy between his good side and bad side. For me, the good does in no way outweigh the bad, especially since he has been exposed to and had plenty of time and opportunities to fathom and absorb the reality and true morality of the situation.