NCJ Number
127951
Journal
Journal of the National Prison Project Issue: 15 Dated: (Spring 1988) Pages: 10-13
Date Published
1988
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article presents the comments of critics who challenge the wisdom of using the findings of a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey that found strong public support for the use of incarceration.
Abstract
The survey was based on telephone interviews with a national representative sample of 1,920 adults interviewed about their attitudes toward punishment for criminal offenders. The survey, conducted between August and October 1987, read eight crime vignettes to each respondent. Each vignette included information about crime type, amount of harm or injury, and offender and victim characteristics. Each respondent was then asked to render an opinion about offense seriousness, the type and amount of punishment the offender should receive, and the reasons why they selected particular punishments. Seventy-one percent of those surveyed said imprisonment was part of an appropriate punishment. Interviews with research criminologists and criminal justice practitioners suggest a number of significant problems with the survey. Foremost among the study's problems are its failure to ask respondents an adequate range of questions or provide them with sufficient information to make informed judgements, failure to place the analysis of the study's findings in the context of related research, failure to consider the policy and fiscal implications of the study's findings, and the potential for incomplete interpretation or premature application of the findings for immediate policy purposes. 11 footnotes