NCJ Number
163466
Date Published
1996
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Three strikes laws represent a prime example of the social construction of reality in criminal justice; using the pre- existing social construction of predator criminals in the entertainment and news media, three strikes laws demonstrate the role of claims makers, competing claims, and symbolic campaigns in contemporary criminal justice policy formulation.
Abstract
Attempting to understand the media-criminal justice policy relationship leads to two bodies of research. The first involves communication and journalism research, while the second concerns the social construction of reality literature that examines the media's role in creating and promulgating social knowledge. Combined, the research provides a foundation to explore criminal justice policy initiatives such as three strikes laws. Three strikes laws have emerged as the latest in a series of fast- paced, punitive, heavily media-covered crime panaceas. The relationship between the media and criminal justice policy formulation is important, but effects of the media are difficult to discern and do not occur in direct or simple ways. In addition to communication and journalism research, the social construction of reality perspective assists in understanding the media- criminal justice policy relationship by focusing on the way in which the dominant view of social reality is created. Predator criminals and predator crime are the modern icons of the media, and criminal justice policy formulation is linked to the media's reality construction efforts. Further, the implementation of three strikes laws demonstrates the public's important role in criminal justice policy formulation. A case study of California's three strikes law is presented that views the law as a social construction of reality. 58 references, 6 notes, 4 tables, and 2 figures