Download or read book Public Attitudes about Courts and Sentencing Practices written by Jackie Peterson and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Understanding Public Attitudes to Criminal Justice written by Mike Hough and published by McGraw-Hill Education (UK). This book was released on 2005-11-16 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Which factors shape public opinion of criminal justice? How do the views of the public influence criminal justice policy and practice? This book provides an introduction to public attitudes towards criminal justice. It explores the public’s lack of confidence in criminal justice processes, and summarizes findings on public attitudes towards the three principal components of the criminal process: the police, the courts, and the prison system. It examines the importance that people attach to different criminal justice functions, such as preventing crime, prosecuting and punishing offenders, and protecting the public. Topics include: Youth justice and public opinion Public perception of restorative justice Penal populism and media treatment of crime The reliability of public opinion polls The drivers of public opinion Understanding Public Attitudes to Criminal Justice provides an international perspective on the issues surrounding criminal justice and public opinion, drawing on research from the UK, the United States and Canada and a range of other countries including South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Key reading for students in criminology, criminal justice, and media studies, this book is also of value to researchers and those with an interest in crime and the media.
Download or read book Penal Populism Sentencing Councils and Sentencing Policy written by Arie Freiberg and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-05 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public outcries and political platforms based on misinformation and misconceptions about the criminal justice system and current sentencing practice occur all too often in democratic societies. Penal Populism, Sentencing Councils and Sentencing Policy attempts to address this problem by bringing together important contributions from a number of distinguished experts in the field. Penal Populism presents theoretical perspectives on the role of the public in the development of sentencing policy. It places particular emphasis on the emerging role of sentencing commissions, advisory councils or panels in a number of English speaking countries: Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Scotland and South Africa. The book explains, expands and develops the existing literature that looks at public attitudes to justice and the role that the 'public' can play in influencing policy. Written in a scholarly yet accessible style, Penal Populism asks the critical questions: should 'public opinion', or preferably, 'public judgment' be relevant to court decision-making, to institutional decision-making and to the political process? And if so, how?
Download or read book Changing Attitudes to Punishment written by Julian Roberts and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the western world public opinion has played an important role in shaping criminal justice policy. At the same time opinion polls repeatedly demonstrate that the public knows little about crime and justice, and holds negative views of the criminal justice system. This book, consisting of chapters from leading authorities in the field, is concerned to address this problem, and draws upon research in a number of different countries to address the issues arising from this state of affairs. Its main aims are: to explore the changing and evolving nature of public attitudes to sentencing to examine the factors that influence public opinion and to bring together recent international research which has demonstrated ways in which public attitudes can be changed to propose specific strategies to respond to the crisis in public confidence in criminal justice.
Download or read book Public Opinion and Criminal Justice written by Jane Wood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public opinion is vital to the functioning of the criminal justice system but it is not at all clear how best to establish what this is, and what views people have on different aspects of criminal justice and the criminal justice system. Politicians and the media often assume that the public wants harsher, tougher and longer sentences, and policies may be shaped accordingly. Detailed research and more specific polling often tells a different story. This book is concerned to shed further light on the nature of public views on criminal justice, paying particular attention to public opinion towards specific types of offenders, such as sex offenders and mentally disordered offenders. In doing so it challenges many enduring assumptions regarding people's views on justice, and confronts the myths that infect our understanding of what people think about the criminal justice system.
Download or read book Guidelines Manual written by United States Sentencing Commission and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Public Attitudes to Sentencing written by Nigel Walker and published by Gower Publishing Company. This book was released on 1988 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of surveys examines and compares public reactions to sentencing policies in England, the USA, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia.How punitive is the public in these countries? How much leniency or severity will the public tolerate? How much do policy-makers know about the public's view? Are victims more punitive than non-victims? Are the elderly more punitive than the young? Do severe or lenient sentences influence people's disapproval of crimes? What is the influence of the media's selective reporting?The contributors set out to find answers to these and other questions in this wide-ranging collection of studies. The editors' introduction examines how surveys in this field have developed, and it comments on innovations in methodology illustrated by the contributors.
Download or read book Just Punishments written by Peter Henry Rossi and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sentencing guidelines written by the U.S. Sentencing Commission for the federal crime courts were designed to lead to uniform the just punishments for convicted criminals. How well did the Commission's judgments about what were just punishments compare to the view of the American public? Using data from a 1994 national household survey, the authors compare the punishments described by the Commission to those desired by the public. Contrary to the frequency claims of excessive leniency on the part of judges that are often asserted by journalists and shapers of opinions, Rossi and Berk find strong correspondence between the median sentences deemed appropriate by the public and the sentences prescribed by the guidelines. Although the authors conclude that the Commission was able to match prescribed punishments closely to the American consensus for most crimes, in one category -- drug trafficking offenses -- the guidelines were much harsher in dealing with offenders. The national survey used a factorial survey as its design strategy, allowing for analysis of a large variety of federal crimes and variations in the social characteristics of convicted felons. A wealth of detail, along with ample graphic and tabular illustrations, extends the book's application to issues of consensus and variations in punitiveness by region and socioeconomic characteristics of respondents.
Download or read book Judicial Attitudes in Sentencing written by Edward Green and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1974 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor Green offers readers a careful and sophisticated study of the sentencing policy of one of the criminal courts in Philadelphia. The author is aware of the danger of overlooking the norm-setting function of the criminal law and sets out in detail the criteria used in practice to determine the nature and severity of sentence. studied. The influence of extraneous considerations which suggested themselves in the preliminary investigation, such as biases in favor of youthful and female offenders and against colored offenders, were shown on intensive analysis to be the result of differences in the pattern of criminal behavior by the offenders rather than of hidden prejudices by the judges. Even differences in the apparent severity or leniency of particular judges tended to disappear on full investigation of the circumstances of the cases they decided.
Download or read book The Punisher s Brain written by Morris B. Hoffman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-14 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using evidence and arguments from neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, Morris B. Hoffman describes how the judge and jury system evolved.
Download or read book Sentencing Guidelines written by Andrew Ashworth and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The politics of criminal sentencing has recently crystallised around the issue of whether and how a system of structured sentencing should inform judicial approaches to punishing criminals. Increasingly, structured sentencing guidelines are being introduce to frame judicial discretion. This volume is the first to examine the experience in England and Wales in the light of international developments. This collection of essays begins with a clear and concise history of the guidelines as well as a description of how they function. Topics addressed include the effect of guidelines on judicial practice, the role of public opinion in developing sentencing guidelines, the role of the crime victim in sentencing guidelines, and the use of guidelines by practicing barristers. In addition, the international dimension offers a comparative perspective: the English guidelines are explored by leading academics from the United States and New Zealand. Although there is a vast literature on sentencing guidelines across the United States, the English guidelines have attracted almost no attention from scholars. As other jurisdictions look to introduce more structure to sentencing, the English scheme offers a real alternative to current US schemes. Contributors include practicing lawyers, legal and socio-legal academics, and also scholars from several other countries including New Zealand and the United States, providing a multidisciplinary and cross-jurisdictional approach to sentencing. This book will be of interest to academics from law, sociology and criminology, legal practitioners, and indeed anyone else with an interest in sentencing, around the world.
Download or read book Sentencing Reform in Overcrowded Times written by Michael Tonry and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-04-24 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sentencing and corrections issues are much the same in every Western nation. Increasingly, countries are importing policies and practices that have succeeded elsewhere. In that spirit, this volume brings together articles on sentencing reform in the United States, other English-speaking countries, and Western Europe, all written by leading national and international authorities on sentencing and punishment policy, practices, and institutions. Timely and readable, many of these essays provide brief yet detailed sentencing policy histories for countries and states. Others offer concise overviews of research on racial disparities, public opinion, and evaluation of the effects of new policies. Together, they illustrate the radical, precipitate, and hyperpoliticized nature of American sentencing reform in the last twenty-five years. Sentencing Reform in Overcrowded Times: A Comparative Perspective fills a major gap in the academic and policy literatures on this subject, and will be essential reading for students, scholars, and practitioners.
Download or read book Sentencing Policy and Social Justice written by Ralph Henham and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-09 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sentencing Policy and Social Justice argues that the promotion of social justice should become a key objective of sentencing policy, advancing the argument that the legitimacy of sentencing ultimately depends upon the strength of the relationship between social morality and penal ideology. It sheds light on how shared moral values can influence sentencing policy at a time when relationships of community appear increasingly fragmented, arguing that sentencing will be better placed to make a positive contribution to social justice if it becomes more sensitive to the commonly-accepted moral boundaries that underpin adherence to the 'rule of law'. The need to reflect public opinion in sentencing has received significant attention more recently, with renewed interest in jury sentencing, 'stakeholder sentencing', and the involvement of community views when regulating policy. The author, however, advocates a different approach, combining a new theoretical focus with practical suggestions for reform, and arguing that the contribution sentencing can make to social justice necessitates a fundamental change in the way shared values about the advantages of punishment are reflected in penal ideology and sentencing policy. Using examples from international, comparative and domestic contexts to advance the moral and ethical case for challenging the existing theories of sentencing, the book develops the author's previous theoretical ideas and outlines how these changes could be given practical shape within the context of sentencing in England and Wales. It assesses the consequences for penal governance due to increased state regulation of discretionary sentencing power and examines the prospects for achieving the kind of moral transformation regarded as necessary to reverse such a move. To illustrate these issues each chapter focuses on a particularly problematic area for contemporary sentencing policy; namely, the sentencing of women; the sentencing of irregular migrants; sentencing for offences of serious public disorder; and sentencing for financial crime.
Download or read book Fear of Judging written by Kate Stith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1998-10 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For two centuries, federal judges exercised wide discretion in criminal sentencing. In 1987 a complex bureaucratic apparatus termed Sentencing "Guidelines" was imposed on federal courts. FEAR OF JUDGING is the first full-scale history, analysis, and critique of the new sentencing regime, arguing that it sacrifices comprehensibility and common sense.
Download or read book Thinking about Crime written by Michael Tonry and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-29 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-ranging analysis, Michael Tonry argues that those responsible for crafting America's criminal justice policy have lost their way in a forest of good intentions, political cynicism, and public anxieties. American crime control politics over time have created a punishment system no one would knowingly have chosen yet one that no one seems able to change. Prevailing sensibilities rather than timeless truths govern the American war on crime, resulting in policies both wasteful and harsh. U.S. crime trends closely resemble those of other nations, yet American policies, shaped by different sensibilities, are much more punitive. Seamlessly blending history with an easy presentation of day-to-day realities and empirical evidence, Tonry proposes tangible, specific solutions that can serve as a platform for criminal justice reform. We know how to create an effective and humane criminal justice system. Now we must have the courage to do so, by abandoning the current status quo, which is both costly and cruel in favor of practices that will move America closer to the mainstream of contemporary Western values.
Download or read book Impact of Information about Sentencing Patterns on Public Attitudes Toward the Criminal Justice System written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gauging Public Opinion on Sentencing written by Kate Warner and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using jurors to ascertain public opinion on sentencing has a number of advantages over other methods. Jurors' opinions are based on informed judgements rather than uninformed, intuitive responses and they have detailed knowledge of the offence and a sense of the offender as a real person. Using a sample of jurors from Tasmanian courts, this study examined the utility of using jurors to gauge public opinion on sentencing and as a means of informing the public about crime and sentencing issues. Results indicate that the opinion of jurors towards sentences is not as punitive as public opinion polls would suggest and it would appear that specific knowledge of a case may moderate harsher sentencing attitudes. While there is evidence that jury participation increases confidence in the criminal justice system, the study found that pre-existing perceptions about lenient sentencing may be difficult to change. This was particularly the case when it came to sentencing for sex offences, where jurors were least satisfied with sentencing severity. The study determined that despite there being potential issues around obtaining truly representative population samples, surveying jurors as a means of ascertaining informed public opinion about sentencing seems a good option. A useful view of the general public's opinion on appropriate penalty levels for particular crimes can be elicited, along with their knowledge of crime and sentencing matters.
