Introduction: minimizing harm as a solution to the crime policy conundrum / Edward L. Rubin -- Public attitudes toward crime: is American violence a crime problem? / Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins -- Comment: when and for whom is violence a crime problem? / Albert J. Reiss Jr. -- Comment: crime, violence, and public mythology / Robert Weisberg -- Prevention: the cost-effectiveness of early intervention as a strategy for reducing violent crime / Peter W. Greenwood -- Comment: early intervention: promising path to cost-effective crime control, or primrose path to wasteful social spending? / Mark H. Moore -- Comment: can we afford to prevent violence? Can we afford not to? / John B. Reid and J. Mark Eddy -- Alternative sanctions: diverting nonviolent prisoners to intermediate sanctions: the impact on prison admissions and corrections costs / Joan Petersilia -- Comment: net repairing: rethinking incarceration and intermediate sanctions / John J. DiIulio Jr. -- Comment: intermediate punishments / Norval Morris -- Drug policy: drug enforcement, violent crime, and the minimalization of harm / Jerome Skolnick -- Comment: the ambiguities of harm reduction in crime and drug policy / Mark A.R. Kleiman -- Comment: breaking the impasse in American drug policy / Robert J. MacCoun.