NCJ Number
82170
Date Published
1982
Length
295 pages
Annotation
This anthology of collected papers examines various aspects of crime, criminals, and victims; problems in criminal justice administration, corrections and punishment.
Abstract
The papers focusing on crime, criminals, and victims discuss 10 premises about juvenile delinquency, the availability of firearms and the illicit sale of narcotics, the homosexual as a crime victim, victim compensation, and sex offenses and sex offenders. The sexual provisions of American penal codes are extremely puritanical in attempting to repress with overly severe penalties both normal sex relations not theologically sanctioned; consenting homosexual acts committed in private between adults; and in some jurisdictions, the possession of pornographic materials. Thus, the criminal law does not distinguish between those acts which must be prohibited to protect society and those acts, sexual or otherwise, which are matters of private moral choice. The philosophy of the Warren Court, false convictions, the problem of entrapment, discipline in American policing, legal reactions and reforms, and the vision of police professionalism held by August Vollmer are discussed. Contemporary trends in corrections, the Highfields treatment philosophy, the role of the correctional policymaker, and opportunities and problems in expanding probation are examined. Also mentioned are comments about prison labor and employment, a statement against capital punishment, and the medical model in corrections. Tables, chapter notes, and an index are provided.