A MESSAGE FROM MARC

There are many battles to be fought in the war to make America safe for all children. However, America's current focus on stronger sentencing is really nothing more than a skirmish. We are also kidding ourselves if we think we can declare victory through full implementation of Neighborhood Watch programs and proactive partnerships to fight crime.

These solutions, as important as they are, only address the current generation of criminals. If other families are to be spared the pain mine has endured, policymakers need to look beyond the death penalty or prison sentences. Instead they must focus on the critical steps our communities and nation can take to protect all children. This is the battlefront that will protect future generations from an epidemic of crime.

In America today, we can save thousands of children and adults if we invest now in proven programs that help kids get the right start and prevent them from becoming criminals in the first place.

The plain truth is that we ignore the most powerful weapons we have against crime. Programs like Head Start, parenting education, mentoring, job training, good schools, and after-school programs can dramatically reduce crime by helping kids become productive citizens instead of brutal criminals. For example:

• High Scope Educational Research Foundation's Ferry Preschool study, which took place over two decades ago, combined a high-quality Head Start-style program for three- and four-year- olds with weekly home visits to coach their parents. High Scope randomly chose half the children who applied. Twenty-three years later, its researchers found that kids who took part in these programs were five times less likely to be chronic lawbreakers.

• A Syracuse University Family Development Research Program showed that comprehensive early childhood services sharply cut subsequent delinquency. Kids in a comparison group that did not receive those services were ten times more likely to have a record of delinquency.

• Other studies show that help for older kids can also significantly improve their - and our - chances. For example, when the Quantum Opportunities Program had high school kids participate in community service and gave them counseling, academic help, and financial incentives, it cut the risk of arrest by 50 percent.

If you do not trust the studies, ask America's police force. In a recent survey by criminologist Jack McDevitt, nine out of ten police chiefs said, "America could sharply reduce crime" if government invested in more of these Right Start programs. Asked which strategies would have the greatest long-term impact in reducing crime, police chiefs picked increasing investments in kids by a three-to-one margin over trying more juveniles as adults or even hiring more police officers.

Ultimately, programs like these actually save tax dollars while they save lives and property. For example, High Scope's Ferry Preschool saved $148,000 in crime costs for every child served. Unfortunately, Right Start investments are so under-funded that they cannot begin to serve more than a small portion of the kids who need them. Vanderbilt University criminologist Mark Cohen estimates America would save $1.5 million for each high-risk youngster diverted from a life of crime.

Don't get me wrong - we do need to get dangerous criminals off I the street and behind bars. However, if we do not invest in programs that help children become caring citizens instead of brutal criminals, we will all pay an unfathomable cost in broken lives and broken hearts.

We cannot win the war against crime solely by focusing on prison construction and punishment. We will win the war on crime when we are ready to invest our time, energy, and tax dollars in America's most vulnerable children, so that they never become America's most wanted adults. Anything else is too little, too late.

By ignoring proven solutions, our policymakers are ignoring our most effective weapons in the war against crime. The way I see it, that is being soft on crime.