Governmental Responses to Crime - Legislative Responses to Crime - The Changing Content of Criminal Law

• NCJ Number: 81624
• Author(s): A M Heinz
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 154 pages
• Grant Number(s): 78-NI-AX-0096
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: Northwestern University
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Governmental Responses to Crime Project

Annotation

This study analyzes enactments to State and city codes in 10 large American cities from 1948 to 1978, measuring trends in criminalization, severity of penalties, and administrative and judicial discretion.

Abstract

Some jurisdictions at both city and State levels frequently reformed their laws, while others rarely resorted to reform. Legislative attention to crime generally coincided with attention to crime on the local political agenda and with the degree of local power to legislate. Criminalization and the severity of penalties increased significantly at the State level over the study period; constraints on judicial and administrative discretion, such as mandatory sentencing, showed a marked increase in the 1970's. Municipal rulemaking patterns varied widely; examples from selected jurisdictions illustrate these patterns for public order offenses, drug offenses, and gun control. By 1978, city code offenses had been reduced in quantity because of the removal of certain status offenses and greater differentiation in certain categories of offenses, leading to more careful targeting. More sweeping penal reforms tended to follow legislative changes. At the State level, there was a consistent expansion of law, and a move away from the rehabilitative model of sentencing. Tables, graphs, and about 50 references are included. A technical appendix presents a detailed description of procedures used to measure changes in offense meanings.