NCJ Number
158467
Date Published
1996
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This chapter discusses cycles in the American orientation toward the sentencing of criminal offenders, and predicts that the current tendency to emphasize punishment or retribution will shift in the next few decades toward a philosophy of treatment or rehabilitation.
Abstract
Punishment-oriented periods are characterized by the passage of legislation which focuses on the offense rather than the offender, increases penalties, and reduces variability in sentencing. A treatment-oriented period in criminal justice would see new statutes reducing or eliminating punitive statutes such as habitual offender laws, sentence enhancement, and determinate sentencing, and stressing instead community-based alternatives to incarceration. 71 references