Alexis M. Durham

Crime seriousness and punitive severity: An assessment of social attitudes

American penal policy appears to be shifting away from practices based upon the rehabilitative ideal and toward those consistent with the retributively based justice model. Yet despite the appearance of a variety of reforms based upon desert, several problems associated with the model have yet to be resolved. This paper focuses on the difficulty of identifying a basis for the development of a scale of proportionality between crime and punishment. The use of public sentiment as a basis is considered, and the results of a survey of attitudes regarding appropriate punishment for crime are discussed. The results of this assessment appear to provide little evidence that citizens agree on the appropriate punitive response for criminal activity.

Judgements of appropriate punishment: The effects of question type

The emergence of the justice model as a basis for sentencing policy has raised a number of important issues. For instance, although the model generally posits that the severity of sentences ought to be proportional to the seriousness of offenses, a legitimate metric for the establishment of such a sentencing scheme has yet to be developed. The use of public attitudes toward both crime seriousness and appropriate punishment may provide the basis for such a system. Given the potential impact of such attitudes on the lives of convicted offenders, it is critical that care be exercised in the measurement of public sentiments. This article describes the results of an effort to assess the effects of open-ended versus closed-ended question formats on judgments of the kind and amount of punishment appropriate for various kinds of offenses. The results suggest that question type may indeed have an effect on the character of the punishment identified as appropriate by respondents.

Pornography, social harm, and legal control: Observations on Bart

Both the relatively recent appearance of research on the effects of pornography and the initiative of the current Administration to convene an inquiring commission to study pornography seem to be indicative of an interest in the regulation/control of pornographic material. Consistent with this interest, the Bart article argues both that certain kinds of pornography produce harmful social effects and that legal remedies ought to be pursued. The use of unsupported assertions, the limited generalizability of the social-psychological experimental research, the inability of the research to measure the magnitude of the effects of pornography, and the failure to conduct the discussion in comparative cost/benefit terms severely undermines the persuasiveness of the argument presented by Bart.

Citizen Judgments Of Appropriate Punishment: An Exploratory Inquiry

The justice model suggests that punishment ought to be administered in accord with the seriousness of the offense, and that citizen judgments might be used in operationalizing the model (von Hirsch, 1976). This paper examines the question of whether citizens agree in their assessments of appropriate punishment for various offenses, as well as on the underlying rationales for the punishments that they assign. It can be argued that if citizen sentiments are to be considered in the creation of scales of just punishment, citizens must agree both with respect to the kinds of punishment that ought to be administered and with respect to the basis for such punitive determination. The results of an exploratory empirical survey, using an open-ended questionnaire format, suggest that relatively low levels of agreement exist regarding both the specific punishments viewed as appropriate for criminal transgressions and the underlying basis of punitive assessments.

The justice model in historical context: Early law, the emergence of science, and the rise of incarceration

Abstract During the last decade, a variety of criminal justice system reforms have been implemented in the United States. A number of these reforms appear to be associated with the justice model of punishment. This model purports to solve several of the major problems which beset the antecedent rehabilitative model. The analysis presented in this article attempts to relate the justice model to early legal codes, the emergence of scientific enterprise, and the shift to incarcerative punishment. More specifically, the discussion suggests that the new quantification of punishment represented by the justice model reflects the influence of these three historical predecessors. The implications of the analysis for future penal policy based upon the justice model are considered.

Newgate of Connecticut: Origins and early days of an early American prison

Although Philadelphias Walnut Street Jail is often credited with being the first American prison, one can make a reasonable case for a number of earlier institutions antedating the Philadelphia facility. The opening of Newgate of Connecticut, situated in an abandoned copper mine in the central part of the colony of Connecticut, anticipated the Jail by almost 20 years. The Connecticut General Assembly authorized the prison in 1773, and it was opened in December of the same year. In view of the general colonial reluctance to punish serious crime with incarceration, the opening of the prison is a significant event. This paper describes the origination of Newgate and its effectiveness in achieving its objectives during its initial year of operation. In addition, the analysis considers Newgate in the context of the major explanatory perspectives in penological theory. The analysis suggests that the origination of Newgate is not explained well by these perspectives, but seems rather to be the result of colony-...

Teaching controversial issues in criminal justice: Using historical material to overcome student resistance

Although the teaching of controversial issues in criminal justice can be a lively and rewarding experience, it can also be extremely challenging. Unlike subject matter in other disciplines, the subject matter of criminal justice is to some extent familiar to most reasonably well-informed citizens. Thus students in criminal justice classes will possess an awareness of many of the disciplines controversial issues, such as the value of capital punishment and the utility of the Miranda rules, and have their own views regarding these issues. Unfortunately, many of these views are strongly held, and students are sometimes unreceptive to critical examination of such issues because of the strength of their convictions. This paper describes an approach to overcome this obstacle to critical scrutiny of controversial issues in criminal justice. The general approach relies upon the use of historical material as a tool to make it easier for the student to master the important problems, concepts, and data which pertain to current justice system controversies.

Ivy league delinquency: A self-report analysis

Since the 1940s, self-report technology has been utilized to improve our understanding of the frequency and distribution of crime and delinquency. Findings based upon self-reports have called into question the traditional class-based view of criminality. It is now apparent that middle- and upper-class young people are involved in delinquent activity, although the precise extent and nature of such involvement remains unclear. The research detailed in this report attempts to add to our understanding of class and illegal activities by examining a sample of Ivy League undergraduates for evidence of participation in serious forms of delinquency. It can be argued that such a sample is especially interesting both because these respondents represent the “best and the brightest,” and because they possess relatively advantaged positions regarding access to conventional kinds of power and success. The findings indicate that serious delinquency is by no means rare among these youth. Involvement in violence, however, appears to be relatively infrequent and weighted toward the less serious end of the continuum of violent delinquency. In addition, the delinquent activity of this sample was highly diverse. Even for the most serious offenders the results provide little evidence of offense specialization.

Book Reviews : The Reproduction Of Social Control—A Study of Prison Workers At San Quentin. Barbara A. Owen. Praeger, 1988. 160 pp

criminology. It certainly is a good resource book for those in the discipline, especially if their interests are in theory development. In summary, The Criminology Of Edwin Sutherland offers a complete and insightful account of the development of Edwin Sutherland as a central figure in American criminology, with a strong emphasis on the historical and personal contexts in which the development took place. The authors have succeeded in praising the man and his ideas without creating a shrine or engaging in attempts at destroying the mystique. Randy Martin Indiana University of Pennsylvania