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Economic Crisis and the Justice Model - A Skeptical View

NCJ Number
85756
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1982) Pages: 601-609
Author(s)
D F Greenberg; D Humphries
Date Published
1982
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This critique discusses the shortcomings of the article 'Marxism and Criminal Justice Policy' by Jeffrey Reiman and Sue Headlee, focusing on the justice model.
Abstract
Although Reiman and Headlee may be correct in attributing the recent toughening of criminal justice policy to the deterioration of the economy, they have not made a serious attempt to theorize or investigate empirically the connection between the justice model and material conditions. They posit a connection between an economic crisis and the development of the justice model, but without demonstrating why the model developed in the 1974-75 recession but not in earlier post-World War II recessions. They do not explain why the crisis was met with this response and not some other response. No attempt is made to show how the class location or loyalties of those who developed the model influenced its substance, even though these questions are critical. They seem reluctant to give people who occupy subordinate positions in society (e.g., prison inmates) credit for being able to analyze their situation, develop an understanding of it, struggle, and force the state to adopt new policies. Moreover, the article possesses a certain insensitivity to the contradictory character of bourgeois ideology. A total of 27 footnotes are provided.

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