Can the Law Make Us Virtuous? (From Equal Justice Under the Law, P 93-115, PU)

• NCJ Number: 82100
• Author(s): J Q Wilson
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 24 pages
• Sale Source: Superintendent of Documents, GPO; National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Massachusetts, September 24, 1976.

Annotation

America's endorsement of secularism, liberty (often without responsibility), affluence, and self-gratification, tends to produce a breakdown in self-restraint and a commitment to the time and energy required to help juveniles develop a health value system. This situation spawns criminality among the young which the criminal justice system cannot control.

Abstract

The criminal justice system has shown little success in being able to impact significantly the crime rate through rehabilitation efforts. Deterrence and incapacitation spurred by increased arrests, higher proportions of convictions, and longer prison sentences have apparently been more significant in reducing the crime rate, but hardly to a point where crime ceases to be a serious socioeconomic problem. The criminal justice system cannot be expected to deal with soaring criminal behavior created by a socioeconomic milieu that appears largely incapable of producing lawabiding behavior. The law itself cannot make citizens virtuous. This comes from teaching and role modeling in the family, school, and neighborhood. When basic informal social controls are inconsistent, weak, or negative in their influences, a community becomes vulnerable to the emergence of criminal behavior among its youth, and law and the criminal justice system become the only means of behavioral control. This circumstance exists in countless cities and communities throughout America. Twenty footnotes are listed.