In 1974 the crime rate had risen, as Mr. Buckley tells us, "by the largest margin in

recorded history: 17 per cent." Our guests--each the author of a recent book on crime and criminals--explore causes and potential methods of deterrence, trenchantly and imaginatively. (Among other things, Mr. van den Haag floats his idea of exiling repeat criminals to a remote town set aside for them, until they have reached an age at which statistics suggest they are not likely to return to crime.) JQW: "There is no clinical evidence I know of that the population of prisons, of criminals generally, is any less rational, or indeed on the average any less intelligent, than the average person.... They tend to be younger, and have a higher taste for risk than stodgy middle-aged conservative people like ourselves, but they are no different in their ability to calculate the likely consequences of their acts."