Criminal Justice at the Crossroads: Transforming Crime and Punishment

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 755-757
Author(s):  
Jennifer Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Crime And Punishment

Why and How We Need to Fill Criminal Justice Data Gaps

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-261
Author(s):  
Arthur Rizer ◽  
Dan King
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Data Storage ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Data Gaps ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Silver Bullet

For the past 50 plus years the United States has been debating the very nature of our criminal justice system. Are we too lenient? Are we too vindictive? Do we give too much power to our cops and prosecutors or too many protections to defendants? But maybe most important, is there a better way? Can we ensure we have both safety and dignity built into our system? These questions are extremely difficult for law makers to answer because of the moral implications involved with crime and punishment, but also because of one glaring weakness: data sharing and reporting. We simply do not have comprehensive data collection systems for policy makers to draw on to design interventions that can protect public safety and help heal community wounds. While there is no silver bullet that will fix these problems, we believe attention should be paid to: 1) fixing inconsistencies in key terms so data collection can be universal, 2) fixing the issues with delayed reporting so the data we have is up to date for researchers and policy makers, and 3) addressing issues with inadequate and inconsistent data storage so not only will the data be available but assessable to those who can use it to improve the system.

27. Critical perspectives on crime and punishment

Criminology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Case ◽  
Phil Johnson ◽  
David Manlow ◽  
Roger Smith ◽  
Kate Williams
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Transformative Justice ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Community Justice ◽  
Critical Perspectives ◽  
Control Theories

This chapter examines a range of perspectives which question the assumptions underlying the concept of ‘punishment’. It first explains what is meant by the idea of critical perspectives on punishment before discussing a number of critical perspectives on the justice system including abolitionism, social control theories, community justice, and transformative justice. It then explores unjust punishment and problems for criminal justice of discrimination and inequality, focusing on the disparities in treatment between white, BME, and other sectors of the population in the criminal justice system. It also considers how ‘crimes of the privileged’ and state crimes can remain unseen or unpunished and concludes with an evaluation of the limitations of critical analyses of crime and punishment.

Criminal justice in the middlebrow imagination: The punitive dimensions of Making a Murderer

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel LaChance ◽  
Paul Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Crime And Punishment

Popular documentary representations of crime and punishment have traditionally tended to fall into two camps: programs that are critical of law enforcement agencies and those that are sympathetic to them. In this article, we show how programs that present themselves as critical of legal authorities can nonetheless reinforce the “law and order punitivism” that underlay the ratcheting up of harsh punishment in the late 20th century. In a case study of the popular documentary miniseries Making a Murderer, we show how this can happen when texts fetishize the question of a criminal defendant’s innocence, adopt a “good versus evil” approach to players in the criminal justice system, and perpetuate a procedural rather than substantive vision of justice. Arguments are supported by a close reading of Making a Murderer and illustrated by a line of discussion it inspired in an internet forum.

Crime and Punishment

2019 ◽  
pp. 73-106
Author(s):  
Anna Ross
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
State Building ◽  
The Political ◽  
Easy Task ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Procedural Reform

This chapter sets out to chart the reforms to criminal and penal affairs undertaken in Prussia in the 1850s. Both Manteuffel and the Justice Minister Ludwig Simons believed that revolutionary unrest could be countered by completing unattended work from the Vormärz era pertaining to criminal justice. But realizing a reform agenda was no easy task. On the political extremes it elicited opposition, especially in the symbolically charged terrain of substantive criminal law. To avoid such complications, both ministers worked hard to shift debate to the realm of procedural reform in the 1850s, creating a surprising and largely integrating space for state-building. In doing so, the post-revolutionary ministries pursued reform without slipping into parochialism. That is, they did not permanently close avenues for the creation of a set of unified national codes to regulate criminal and penal affairs.

Dostoevsky and Education through Punishment

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-486
Author(s):  
Chris Barker
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Moral Reform ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Legal Punishment ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
Hard Treatment ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractIn an important 1984 paper, “The Moral Education Theory of Punishment,” Jean Hampton argues that the practice of inflicting painful criminal punishments is justified only if punishment is morally educative. Hampton's suggestion forms the point of departure for this article on Dostoevsky'sCrime and Punishment. I show that Dostoevsky agrees with Hampton that punishment should aim at moral reform; however, Dostoevsky presents no evidence that self-punishment or legal punishment reliably cultivates respect for law, legal authority, oneself, or others as moral agents. Instead, Dostoevsky's post-Siberian writings are highly critical of Russian criminal justice, and emphasize that moral education comes through dialogue, reflection, and criticism. This highly individualized treatment may be experienced as painful, but it does not have to result from, and it may even be impeded by, legal “hard treatment.”

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document