NCJ Number
100303
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 27 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1985) Pages: 409-428
Date Published
1985
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Moral and utilitarian issues in assessing the viability and acceptability of selective incapacitation policies in the Canadian context are addressed.
Abstract
An examination of existing incapacitative and career criminal programs indicates that they are reserved for a relatively small proportion of the criminal population, contribute to prison overcrowding, and have not diminished the crime problem. Further, doctrinaire selective incapacitation policies would entail the application of predictive sentencing criteria. The preventive effect of such policies has been modest, due to the large number of people engaged in crime, problems in prediction, case attrition in the criminal justice system, and offender substitution. The adverse effects of selective incapacitation, such as violation of due process and the principle of proportionality and the additional victimization of minority groups, further undercut the utility of the approach. Such approaches also overestimate the criminal justice system's ability to combat crime. The advancement of such panaceas promotes disillusionment, ignores the doctrines of retribution and desert, and discounts deterrence and rehabilitation goals of incarceration. 60 references.