Crunching numbers: Crime and incarceration at the end of the millennium

Our attitude toward the future may also be shaped by the fact that we statisticians are more oriented to the past: We know that the only data available are data from the past. This article, therefore, explores some of the complex trends in property crime, rape, and violence among intimates, all of which raise important questions for new research. It also highlights some of the implications of the high rates of incarceration, which are attracting researchers’ attention.1 Conclusions are left for the reader to draw.