Search

The article presents information on the book "To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice," by Bruce L. Benson. With justice to crime victims as the prime consideration, and seeking to explain the fact that only a small minority of crimes are reported, solved, and punished, the author undertakes a cost/benefit analysis of the private, or nonstate organizations providing various kinds of crime control in contemporary America. An historical analysis indicates that while the response to crime was once primarily community-based, state involvement in crime control has grown significantly in the past two centuries. Presently, however, there is a growing trend back towards non-state organizations. Included in this trend are several types of organizations, including citizen and neighborhood crime watches, private security forces, bail bondsmen and privately run prisons and halfway houses. Although state agency involvement with and encouragement of some of these groups is growing, and understanding the trend towards privatization requires examination the institutional setting of the interaction of private and state agencies.

To evaluate the efficacy of definitive radiotherapy in a population of patients with carcinoma of the prostate who satisfy the customary selection criteria for radical prostatectomy, a nation-wide search was conducted. The assessed population consists of patients with clinical Stage A2 and B carcinoma of the prostate, negative staging lymphadenectomy, negative bone scan, and normal serum acid phosphatase. The search included patients from Stanford University, Washington University in St. Louis, those participating in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and a broad range of radiotherapy practices surveyed by the PCS (Patterns of Care Study). A total of 209 patients satisfying the selection criteria received definitive radiotherapy during the surveyed period. The end-point of analysis was the time to progression (distant metastases). The results of the analysis indicate a very low (less than 10%) probability of progression within the first 5 years after completion of treatment. Contrary to the recent report from the VA Uro-Oncology Group the study demonstrates a comparable outcome in radiotherapeutically and surgically treated patients.