Taking Aim: Target Populations and the Wars on AIDS and Drugs By Mark C. Donovan. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. 148p. $50.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Extract

One recent approach to the study of public policy has been policy design. And one component of this is the concept of target populations. Perhaps the strongest case for the importance of target populations as a focus for research has been advanced in the work of Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram. They have argued that target populations help to shape the construction of public policies. If target populations are politically weak and have negative constructions (for instance, drug users and drug dealers), then policies will tend to be harsh and punitive—penalties rather than benefits. In part, this serves political purposes, since one would get “political points” for being harsh with those who have little power and are perceived as “bad” people. In the process, bad policy may result, since the construction of target populations and policies aimed at them may have little to do with actually solving complex social problems.