Criminal Justice and Medicine

Criminal justice is to medicine as drug king pins are to heart transplants -- or something like that.

In other words, like modern medicine, criminal justice best known and revered for relatively low-frequency but spectacular cases -- serial killers, large drug busts.  Similarly, modern medicine is best known and revered because of its success relatively low-frequency but spectacular medical interventions -- heart transplants and other "heroic" procedures.

It is at least somewhat acknowledged that in the area of health, that public health measures -- sanitation, diet, environment -- save or prolong the vast majority of people's lives.

As far as crime goes, however, we are still focused on treating the symptoms rather than the causes.