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Criminal Justice Policies

958 Words4 Pages

The current criminal justice system has implemented countless policies that are unsupported or are determined ineffective by research and evaluation. Research and evaluation play an extremely limited role in policy making. Rather than having policy supported by empirical testing our current system promotes policies that are designed to win the approval of organizations and individuals that can promote polices and accelerate their implementation. When research and evaluation does not provide specific answers or raises more questions, it causes policy makers to dismiss research. Research often provides complex answers to our complex crime issues and this does not allow for policy makers to create quick fix policies for crime issues. The implications …show more content…

While many criminal justice policies are loosely based on criminological theories if at all. The lack of consideration for criminological theories could come from the reluctance of scholars to test out the implications of theories on policy. In addition policymakers may simply be unfamiliar with crime theories and therefore have no theoretical knowledge to inform polices. Programs that lack theoretical support are more likely to fail, proving that many criminal justice policies are unlikely to be effective due to poor conceptualization. Even polices that are grounded in theory often are not well supported or are difficult to implement. An example of this would be the scared straight program. While these visitation programs are extremely popular and have a logical appeal to the public there is little research to suggest that their support is justified. Scared straight programs focus on the severity rather than the swiftness or certainty of crime, therefore lacking two fundamental components of deterrence theory. Evaluation of scared straight programs has proven that they have no effective or actually harmful (Mears, …show more content…

Informed policy needs to be created so the appropriate steps can be made to move from our current system of mass incarceration to a system that effectively rehabilitees offenders which results in lower crime rates. After all our criminal justice system was not established solely to incapacitate offenders, it should also aid in reducing recidivism. Rehabilitation, alternative sentencing, and mental health all used to be crucial components of the criminal justice system. Then our society saw a massive decrease in mental health facilities as well as a perceived increase in crime. Crime was perceived to have increased due to politicians and the federal government preying on society’s fear of crime to further their political campaigns and agendas. Once our nation believed poverty, drugs, or race were the driving factors of crime countless policies were brought about to imprison anyone who seemingly threatened America’s future. These policies were not informed by any research and many have been evaluated and deemed ineffective. But society wants quick fixes to crime issues and incapacitation has been our quick fix. Despite research determining that mandatory minimums, capital punishment,

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William Spelman Article Summary

556 Words | 3 Pages

This article, written by William Spelman, focuses on the controversial relationship between prison populations and crime rates. Spelman demonstrates the controversy by referencing studies that yielded a wide array of results ranging from rising prison populations causing a decrease in crime to having no effect at all, and even a study that showed crime increasing as prison populations did. Spelman states that this controversy has long been present when discussing this issue. He expresses concern with the divergent findings due to the fact that they are largely all based on the same data set. This, Spelman believes, is largely due to the fact that the varying studies used different methods in conducting their research.

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Rockefeller Drug Reform Case Study

2021 Words | 9 Pages

It is believed that letting a criminal free from incarceration puts society at risk. Before the reform recidivism rates were high, scaring the public with the idea that criminals can reenter society. When comparing individuals who were sentenced to prison to those in diversion programs, those in diversion programs were more likely to stay out of jail while those who went to jail were more likely to have re-arrests. It was reported that 64% of the treatment sample were arrest-free over a two-year follow up period. Those in the diversion program had recidivism rates as low as 36%; this compares to the group who were given jail time with a recidivism rate of 54% (Parsons, Wei, Henrichson, Drucker, & Trone, 2015).

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Why Do Inmates Deserve Civil Rights

665 Words | 3 Pages

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Evolution Of The Criminal Justice System In The 1990s

220 Words | 1 Pages

INTRODUCTION The role that the criminal justice system assumes in the 1990s is fairly well established, since the political philosophy that establishes priorities is on a relatively stable path. It would appear that the present conservative trend in politics and the way the public reacts to crime will continue well beyond this decade. This conservative trend is shown in court decisions, changes in laws to limit some of the rights of the accused, and in the expansion of discretionary police powers of the state. These trends have already been shown in the evolution of community relations programs of the past five years. The programs have changed from public services orientation to a large number of crime repression programs being offered to

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1493 Words | 6 Pages

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Pros And Cons Of Mass Incarceration

1092 Words | 5 Pages

In this day and age, There are five times as many people in jail as there were in the 1970s. Almost 5 percent of the population of the United States will go to prison at in point of their life. Conservatives believe that imprisonment reduces crime in two ways: it removes criminals from the public so they can not commit more crimes, and it also discourages people who would commit a crime as they consider the consequences. Unfortunately, neither of these outcomes have come to be true. In fact, mass incarceration and “tough on crime” laws have been extremely ineffective that instead of reducing crime, it increases it.

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Essay On Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

1798 Words | 8 Pages

Introduction Crime, its punishment, and the legislation that decides the way in which they interact has long been a public policy concern that reaches everyone within a given society. It is the function of the judicial system to distribute punishment equitably and following the law. The four traditional goals of punishment, as defined by Connecticut General Assembly (2001), are: “deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation.” However, how legislature achieves and balances these goals has changed due to the implementation of responses to changing societal influences. Mandatory minimum sentences exemplify this shift.

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Mass Incarceration Literature Review

1728 Words | 7 Pages

The current system that incarcerates people over and over is unsustainable and does not lower the crime rate nor encourage prisoner reformation. When non-violent, first time offenders are incarcerated alongside violent repeat offenders, their chance of recidivating can be drastically altered by their experience in prison. Alternative sentencing for non-violent drug offenders could alleviate this problem, but many current laws hinder many possible solutions. Recently lawmakers have made attempts to lower the recidivism rates in America, for example the Second Chance Act helps aid prisoners returning into society after incarceration. The act allows states to appropriate money to communities to help provide services such as education, drug treatment programs, mental health programs, job corps services, and others to aid in offenders returning to society after incarceration (Conyers, 2013).

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Explain The Four Purposes Of Research In Criminal Justice

706 Words | 3 Pages

Research should always be high in quality in order to produce information that is pertinent outside of the research setting. In the criminal justice setting research explains the connections between things such as police patrol and crime levels; while other associations include exploration, description, and application (Maxfield, & Babbie, 2016). All of the four purposes seek to ensure that the work carried out by law enforcement not only serves the intended purpose but also uses as little resources as possible. Law enforcement proprietors attempt to practice evidenced-based policing to prevent and respond to crime. Thus making it useful to examine the four purposes separately because each has a different effect on how to structure our research (Maxfield, & Babbie, 2016).

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Mass Incarceration In America

993 Words | 4 Pages

The US abides by the motto of “Tough on Crime.” Citizen and political leaders believe that by employing incarceration as a persistent threat it will invite people to conform to social norms and discourage in engaging in illegal behavior. Although data shows that high incarceration in neighborhoods results in a future increase in crime. The perpetuation and reasons of mass incarceration come from prejudice ideologies and attitudes that are ingrained into the fabric of society. People of color are targeted, arrested, and punished for crimes.

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Incarceration In America

1828 Words | 8 Pages

Criminal legislation and incarceration have long been used as a means to control "powerless" and disadvantaged groups in America. These groups are socially and politically neglected and only receive attention when they are perceived to be a threat to the larger society and then the attention comes in the form of control and punishment (Page, 1993). The control generally manifests itself through crime legislation and the punishment through incarceration. By the end of 2005, there were more than 7 million people under some form of criminal justice supervision (Glaze & Bonczar 2006; Harrison & Beck, 2006a). With such a large and growing number of people under correctional control during a time in which crime rates had either fallen or were stabilizing raises important questions about the purpose and consequences of this institutional intervention.

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Tough On Crime Policy Analysis

784 Words | 4 Pages

In addition to greatly affecting the otherwise unlikely citizens of America, Tough on Crime policies have greatly affected minority groups in America; perhaps more so than of any other group of citizens. To begin, from the 1980 on through the year 1995, the incarceration rates among drug offenders increased by more than 1000 percent. Notably, by the year 1995 one out of every four inmates in any given correctional facility was a drug offender. In addition of that 1000 percent increase, drug offenders accounted for more than 80 percent of the total growth in the federal inmate population and 50 percent of the growth of the state prison population from 1985 to 1995 (Stith, web). In addition, once in the system, the probability of receiving harsher

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Criminal Justice In The Future

267 Words | 2 Pages

The future of criminal justice seems cloudy at best in the current environment our society. When taking into account that future, the policy makers in criminal justice must be able to adapt and overcome to be able to make enduring policies that will carry on throughout what appears to be a difficult future. Currently, there are policies being put in place such as body cams for officers due to the “rash” of police violence that has occurred in the last year or so. It is policies such as this that are going to shape our future and the future of our children. There is far too much political and public motivations being injected into the criminal justice policy making process.

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Racial Inequality In The Criminal Justice System

954 Words | 4 Pages

2010. “Criminology as a social control: discriminatory research & its role in the reproduction of social inequalities and crime.” Crime, Law and Social Change 53:383–96. Miller, L. L. 2010. The Invisible Black Victim: How American Federalism Perpetuates Racial Inequality in Criminal Justice.

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Specific Deterrence Essay

447 Words | 2 Pages

General deterrence and Specific deterrence at first glance seems like it runs hand and hand. As you look closer and understand it better, you come to the realization that they are two different topics. General deterrence is focused on the legal punishment if you are caught committing a crime. Specific deterrence focuses on punishment of criminals that are apprehended. So many question still remain on how effective both deterrence really are.

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