NCJ Number
163417
Date Published
1995
Length
13 pages
Annotation
The relationship between criminological theories and public policies is examined, with emphasis on recent trends in crime and public policy, their relationship to trends in the penal process, and the potential impacts of recent developments in criminological theory.
Abstract
Recent trends include a rapid increase in the adult prison population, an increasingly hardline public policy, a declining average age of offenders, increased victimization of juveniles and young adults, increasing use of firearms in homicides committed by youth, and overall declines in criminal victimization. Considerable consistency exists between how people explain crime and what they propose should be done about it. The conservative attack on criminality emphasizes the reassertion of the traditional values of family, religion, work, and obedience to authority through control and maintenance of order and a loss of interest in offender rehabilitation and reintegration. Currently the criminal justice system has neither the time nor the inclination to address the causes of crime. However, criminological theory has advanced greatly in the last decade; integrated perspectives have combined theories of crime. Although the development of an all-encompassing general theory of crime may be impossible, several criminologists have published theories of wide scope. This research provide an opportunity for criminologists to examine the field's policy implications. 32 references