In too many large U.S. cities, the criminal justice system is failing to protect citizens from criminal behavior, both nonviolent and violent. If all jurisdictions adopted a tough-on-crime approach, then in time, crime rates would fall across the country.

Combining tough-on-crime policies with zero tolerance for nonviolent anti-social behavior is the key. Criminals who are in prison cannot terrorize the public. A zero tolerance approach to anti-social behavior tells bad actors that they will get caught. The data are clear that as the probability of being caught increases, the incidence of crime falls. Even bad actors don’t want to be incarcerated for decades. Too many criminals don’t think they will be caught. They also correctly believe that if they are somehow caught and convicted, they will serve minimal time behind the wire.

Consequences of the soft-on-crime movement evince the nihilistic behavior exhibited by a large number of youths of color who rampaged through Chicago's Loop district last weekend. But nothing illustrates more dramatically the failure of the government to protect the public than the revolving door of the criminal justice system in New York City . In the Big Apple, felons with multiple convictions and new felony charges are rapidly and repeatedly released on bail and then continue to prey on the citizens of the city.

The data indicate the average person sent to state prison in 2014 had 10.3 previous arrests and 4.3 previous convictions. These people had their chances to avoid prison. But amid the recent trend of lower sentencing due to related criminal justice activism, many of those in prison in 2023 have likely had more than enough chances to learn from prior mistakes.

Top line: Law-abiding citizens should be free to live without fear. The situation in many U.S. cities is intolerable.

James Rogan is a former U.S. foreign service officer who later worked in finance and law for 30 years. He writes  a daily note  on finance and the economy, politics, sociology, and criminal justice.