NCJ Number
97012
Journal
Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Volume: 39 Issue: 5 Dated: (May-June 1984) Pages: 248-299
Date Published
1984
Length
51 pages
Annotation
This booklet presents summaries of the sessions held in 1983 by New York's Council on Criminal Justice to obtain information on the various media approaches to the criminal justice system and the responses that can appropriately be made by legislators, judges, and other criminal justice professionals.
Abstract
The 125 participants included judges, criminal justice officials, legislators, community representatives, and members of the media, primarily from organizations in New York. The sessions focused on the type of media reporting which is most likely to achieve the proper balance between an appropriate level of public concern and the kind of appropriate level of public concern and the kind of hysteria likely to undermine rational debate on crime control issues. A panel reviewed the results and implications of a telephone poll of New York State residents that solicited their views of the criminal justice system. The poll found that the public is reasonably well-informed about the criminal justice system up to the point of sentencing. However, the public overestimates the number of reported crimes and arrests as well as the number of prior convictions for people who have been convicted of serious felonies. Respondents were receptive to alternatives to prison, at least for first offenders and, to a lesser but significant extent, even for violent first offenders. Workshops and presentations also focused on prison construction, the role of the press, the relationship between knowledge and sentiment in crime control, sentencing, prison overcrowding, and ways to improve communications between the public and the criminal justice system. Concluding remarks focused on the need for lawmakers, media, lawyers, judges, bar associations, academics, and the public all to take responsibility for informing the public. Footnotes are included.