Severe sentencing fails to reduce crime yet politicians escalate it anyway
Evidence
It is common wisdom among criminologists that heavy and strict sentencing options do not serve the community well in reducing crime levels; on the contrary, they may ensure that offenders constitute themselves as a class apart and establish effective networks and groupings (Braithwaite 1989). But, despite a rash of contestation to criminal-justice practice, there has been little or no movement away from such sentencing patterns in recent years; on the contrary, politicians in many countries have been pushing for ever more severe policies. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 888
Categorization
- SHARE: A criminologist friend who studies sentencing would enjoy this precision about why harshness persists despite evidence against it.
- XREF: connects to: Prisons demonstrably fail to reduce the crime rate — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 402; Failed penal reform collapses back into harsher punishment; Punishment policy cannot reduce crime independently of the social order — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 968 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Punishment severity does not affect crime rates
#corroborates(0.95) - Prisons demonstrably fail to reduce the crime rate
#corroborates(0.92) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 402 - Failed penal reform collapses back into harsher punishment
#exemplifies(0.85) - Politicians exploit capital crimes to win elections
#expands(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1855 - Punishment policy cannot reduce crime independently of the social order
#contradicts(0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 968 - Criminal punishment patterns lack deterrence or retributive logic
#corroborates(0.78) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 710