Gary johnson is a president ial candidate for the libertarian party. In seven principles of good government, he discusses his political philosophy and time as governor of new mexico. Booktv has covered many of these candidates, and you can watch them on our web site, booktv. Org. Booktv continues now with barry latzer on after words. The criminologist tracked violet crime in the United StatesViolent Crime in the United States from the 1960s to today. Hes interviewed by samuel buyler of the urban institute. Host with high profile spikes in violation in milwaukee, chicago, washington, d. C. , the question and the issue of Violent Crime has acquired a national salience that it hasnt had since the 990 190s. Barry latzer has written a new book. Barry, what inspired you to reinvestigate the issue of Violent Crime . Guest no one had really studied in a comprehensive way the history of Violent Crime, and i felt that that needed to be done especially because, as we both know, the Violent Crime rates had skyrocketed in the late 60s and really became a major concern for the entire nation for the next several decades, two and a half decades really. So i felt, given the significance of Violent Crime in the postwar period, a major work on that needed to be done. Host now, you do something really unique in this book. Most people when they talk about Violent Crime, they really start in the 60s and 70s with the first spike. You start your story in the 1940s. What made you decide that you wanted to take a longer perspective on Violent Crime . Guest well, actually, when i wrote the manuscript, i actually went back even further than that, but they only decided to publish the period from the 1940s on, the period within the memory of people who are still alive. But i feel that to really understand Violent Crime and most major phenomenon, one has to go back in time and see how things developed, and thats true with crime as well because ive learned that crime has its ups and downs, and there are good reasons for it. And without a historical perspective, one just cant really fully grasp that. So as you well know, sam, many criminalogical studies, theyll study maybe a years worth of crime, and these have great value. Im not knocking them. Theyre very significant. But they dont give you a broader perspective, and thats why i wrote this book. Host so before we get into the story of crime in america, lets set the stage for our viewers. What is Violent Crime . What kind of crimes are we talking about here . Guest well, the criminologists define it, essentially, as four different crimes. Murder, but, of course, that could be treated as a manslaughter if there are certain what we call elements of the crime present or not present. So together we might refer to those as criminal homicides, so so thats one crime. And then rape, of course, is considered a v