NCJ Number
179470
Date Published
December 1999
Length
0 pages
Annotation
The lecture contained in this videotape deals with political influences on criminal justice policies and analyzes how these policies and laws have changed over time.
Abstract
The lecturer notes that criminal justice policies on punishment have changed in several ways. They have become more crime-centered and more punitive, and they reflect more distrust in government, particularly with three strikes and truth-in-sentencing laws. The lecturer casts doubt on two theories about the politics of punishment, the crime wave theory and the "mad as hell" theory. Regarding the crime wave theory, he discusses the loose linkage between the symbolic and the operational impact of criminal law and the zero sum fallacy that what hurts the criminal helps the victim. The "mad as hell" theory refers to the paradoxical politics of public distrust of government and what citizens expect from the criminal justice system. He also examines the growth of single issue lobbies, such as victim advocacy organizations, in the context of the politics of punishment and considers differences between the symbolic nature of punishment and government actions. The lecturer concludes that individual punishment decisions should be separated from the politics of crime and that legislatures should not decide prison sentences.