The Neo Conservatism of the 60s and 70s

The rise in crime in the 60s and 70s sparked a movement with which I believe you're familiar, the neo conservative movement. Ernie Crystal, James Q Wilson, Daniel Bell, many others were essentially new deal liberals who they said were mugged by reality. They became much more socially conservative and really advocated a tough on crime response. The question would be if we had a, if we had an alternative approach, would we have been able both to reduce crime the way that crime was reduced until a year or so ago?