NCJ Number
222554
Editor(s)
Helmut Kury,
Theodore N. Ferdinand
Date Published
2008
Length
246 pages
Annotation
The chapters of this anthology examine the measurement, prevalence, effects, and trends in punitive attitudes and policies that bear upon the sentencing of offenders in various nations and internationally.
Abstract
The first chapter discusses the measurement and analysis of trends in punitiveness by means of multiple factors in a cross-national context. This is followed by a chapter that addresses crime, fear, and the demand for punishment in the United States, a Nation whose public attitudes, legislative policies, and judicial sentencing have placed it among the world's most punitive nations. The third chapter compares the punitiveness of sentencing over time in the United States and Canada, followed by a chapter that deals exclusively with factors that have fostered punitive criminal justice policies and practices in the United States. Another chapter addresses attitudes toward punishment, sentencing, and imprisonment rates in Germany. The next chapter considers the status and limited findings of research on punitiveness in public attitudes and criminal justice policies in postwar societies. A chapter then proposes a methodology for measuring punitiveness in the context of dealing with war crimes. A chapter on punitiveness in international criminal justice examines whether the research methods used to measure punitiveness in individual nations can also be applied in measuring punitiveness in international criminal justice processes. A chapter then focuses on ways to reduce punitiveness by informing the public and policymakers about scientific criminological findings on the causes of crime and the cost-effectiveness of various criminal justice policies and practices. An epilogue by the editors summarizes the key ideas presented in the chapters. Chapter references, tables, and figures