NCJ Number
135775
Journal
WI: Wisconsin Interest Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter/Spring 1991) Pages: 21-35
Date Published
1992
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This analysis of criminal justice research and policy recommendations in the United States concludes that at least 10 false ideas about crime and punishment have been embodied in Federal, State, and local penal codes, making it easier for criminals to commit both minor and major crimes with impunity.
Abstract
Data are presented to refute the view that crime in the United States is caused by poverty, chronic unemployment, and other socioeconomic factors. The discussion notes that other myths are that the United States became increasingly punitive during the 1980's, that prisons hold large numbers of petty offenders who should not be there, and that prisons are violent and overcrowded human warehouses that increase recidivism. Further falsehoods are that racial discrimination pervades the criminal justice system, that prisons are prohibitively expensive, that interventions by activist judges have improved prison and jail conditions, that the United States has the most punitive criminal justice system in the world, that alternatives to incarceration are not used enough, and that punishment is bad. 51 reference notes