Most ironic of all is the fact that, in 1973, embezzlement alone cost society as much as all "crimes of the poor" combined. The same was true of income tax evasion and fraud. Each costs the public more than all burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft put together.

On the issue of violent crime, the wealthy once again commit crimes that put the average street murderer to shame. Last June, for example, the Wall Street Journal reported that the federal government decided about three years ago not to order Ford Motor Co. to recall and fix 10 million faulty trucks it had produced. The vehicles are capable of suddenly backing up by themselves and killing people. Ford didn't recall the cars; it saved $100 million by sending out warning letters and stickers.

As estimated four dozen people have been killed by defective Fords that unexpectedly shifted into reverse. Each bloody, needless death was an act of murder by the executives of Ford and the United States government, although we know that none of the killers will ever serve time.

How many miners have died because a mining company engineer was allowed to cut safety corners to save money? How many factory deaths could have been prevented? The precise numbers tend to come out only when the news media probe a disaster and temporarily revive old arguments about job safety.

Wilson's claim that the "general public" doesn't care quite so much about theft, fraud, embezzlement and corporate murder is interesting on two levels. First, it suggests that some hard thinking about crime is needed; the far greater cost to society in dollars (and possibly in lost lives) is from crimes of the wealthy, yet they routinely escape notice.

Second, the statement shows a deliberate lowering of scholarly standards to the level of a circus master P.T. Barnum's slogan, "give the people what they want." In the name of honesty, however, it might be more appropriate to change the title of his book and article to Thinking About Crime--Except for the Vast Ones Committed by the Mafia, the U.S. Government, Large Corporations and Respectable Middle Class Citizens.

This is the first of a two-part series.