NCJ Number
199891
Editor(s)
Julian V. Roberts,
Mike Hough
Date Published
2002
Length
252 pages
Annotation
This book discusses how public attitudes to justice are formed, and how they can influence and constrain penal policy.
Abstract
The first chapter describes the context of public attitudes to punishment. The second chapter discusses measuring attitudes to sentencing. Chapter 3 presents international findings of the relationship between public opinion and the nature of community penalties. Chapter 4 presents cross-national attitudes to punishment. The fifth chapter describes the evolution of public attitudes to punishment in Western and Eastern Europe. Public and judicial attitudes to punishment in Switzerland are described in chapter 6. Chapter 7 discusses the change or consistency of public support for correctional rehabilitation in America. Chapter 8 details the punitive and liberal opinions in attitudes to punishment in the United States. The ninth chapter describes the findings from a British deliberative poll on how malleable the attitudes to crime and punishment are. Chapter 10 discusses improving public knowledge about crime and punishment. Chapter 11 describes strategies for changing public attitudes to punishment. Chapter 12 discusses the question of privileging public attitudes to sentencing. 14 figures, 35 tables, index