NCJ Number
87439
Date Published
1977
Length
49 pages
Annotation
This study develops scenarios for criminal justice policy responses to future social trends in accordance with the 'liberal' or 'conservative' ideologies held by criminal justice leadership groups.
Abstract
Liberalism and conservatism are selected as the generalized ideologies for entering the development of future criminal justice scenarios based upon leadership postures because they are familiar, are reasonably comprehensible, influence policy across the board, and hold beliefs about the nature of man and society that generate distinctively different views of criminal justice. Twenty-two characteristics of social conservatism are listed, followed by an outlining of the various aspects of liberal and conservative scenarios for the criminal justice system in the future. Liberal and conservative scenarios are developed for the topics of (1) prospects for crime reduction; (2) crime prevention in the contexts of culture, education, and the family; (3) victimless crimes; (4) the courts; (5) State prisons; (6) alternatives to conventional prisons; (7) the treatment of juvenile offenders; and (8) the Federal role. The liberal scenario appears to be weak in its approach to dealing with intractable antisocial behavior, while the conservative scenario is vulnerable to a degraded form characterized by police brutality, denial of due process, excessive prison terms, and sadistic treatment of prisoners. These degradations are correctable within the scenario's ideological framework, however. Under the conservative scenario, Federal aid will be sought for capital and operating expenses of State prisons and courts, while the liberal scenario involves massive aid for programs that are alternatives to imprisonment.