Crime and Justice
A Look At A National Probl
THE LANCE: 9/29/1977: THREE
Americans are upset about
crime.
We are understandably
angry and frustrated when we
cannot safely walk down city
streets, or take the kids on a
camping trip for fear the
house will be robbed in our
absence.
We are morally outraged
when we discover that
businessmen and government
officials have been conspiring
to use public funds for private
gain.
Sometimes, frustration
virtually tempts us to demand
the ridiculous - to insist that
there be a law against crime.
In fact, of course, many laws
already prohibit and threaten
severe punishment for all
sorts of conduct, including
armed robbery, obstruction of
justice, failure to report in
come, and the use of various
drugs.
Yet, for many reasons, wer
cannot count on the criminal
law alone to work perfectly, to
prevent crime entirely.
First, not everyone reverse
criminal law, or not in the
same way. By passing a law
we may even make the
prohibited conduct more
popular. President Hoover’s
Wickersham Commission,
which studied the effects of
Prohibition on the nation
during the 1920s, concluded
that a new institution-the
speakeasy - made drinking
fashionable for wide segments
of the professional and middle
classes who had previously
not experienced the sinful
delight of recreational
boozing.
It is evident that the passage
of law, especially criminal
law, does not always work out
the way those who advocated
passage foresaw.
legislative
POLITICS
Second, criminal law
reflects through political
advocacy different and
conflicting views - and so it
changes. Teetotalers
scrupulously obeyed the
Prohibition laws; drinkers did
not. Drinkers changed the
law.
During the 1960s, laws
prohibiting marijuana use
amounted to a new
prohibition. People over 40 —
who drank whiskey - com
plied with the law and were
offended by younger people
who smoked marijuana. As
younger people are becoming
successful politicians,
penalties for smoking
marijuana continue to
diminish and may eventually
disappear.
We could introduce criminal
penalties for manufacturing
defective automobile brakes,
which kill and maim
thousands. But we don’t,
because in recent years the
automobile manufacturers’
lobby has had more clout than
Ralph Nader, who proposed
such laws in the Congress.
Maybe that, too, will change.
Other crimes - serious
street crimes such as murder,
rape, assault, and robbery -
are almost universally con-
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deimed. It is these crimes
that are the focus of proposals
I to solve” the crime problem
y - increasing the severeity
and certainty of punishment.
Why, then, not simply en
force these laws more
rigorously and punish swiftly
and surely those found guilty
of violating them? Many
people - including some
prominent criminologists
have advocated this
seemingly simple and
therefore attractive solution
to the problem of American
crime. But such a solution is
not so simple. A criminal
justice system can increase
risk for a criminal - but not by
much, and at higher cost than
many people believe.
HIGH COST
OF PUNISHMENT
The social and economic
costs of punishment are often
underestimated. It is easy to
call for a major expansion of
law enforcement resources; it
is less easy to pay for it.
Policemen, courts, and
prisons are expensive. It is
cheaper to send a youngster to
Harvard than a robber to San
Quentin. And the average San
Francisco pohceman now
draws — with pension — more
than $25,000 per year, to say
nothing of his police car,
support equipment, and
facilities.
The recent experience of a
“law and order” ad
ministration that poured
billions of dollars through the
Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration into the war on
crime is exemplary and
sobering. While violent crime
rose 174 per cent from 1963 to
1973, local spending for law
enforcement multiplied more
than seven times - and
L.E.A.A. poured in $3.5 billion
between 1969 and 1974.
MOTIVES
OF CRIMINALS
The war on crime looks
more and more like the war in
Vietnam. Those who puruse it
are largely ignorant of what
motivates the enemy.
Of course the threat of
punishment deters. But
nobody is clear about how
much threat deters whom with
what effect. For example,
millions of presumably
rational human beings are not
deterred from smoking
cigarettes even though the
probabilities of punishment
through cancer, emphysema,
and heart disease are clear
and painful. People often
believe that present benefits
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At The Movies
FOR WHOM THE BELL
TOLLS
This 1943 film was one of the
most successful ventures of
the 1940’s, and justly so.
Director Sam Wood and script
writer Dudley Nichols set out
to create a movie that was a
film presentation of the story
rather than using the story as
a jumping off point for
something altogether dif
ferent, as movie producers so
often, lamentably, do. Ernest
Hemingway, who wrote the
novel on which the film was
based, picked Gary Cooper
and Ingrid Bergman as his
personal choices for the
leading roles: Robert Jordan
the soldier of fortune who
blows up a Falangist bridge in
the Spanish Civil War, and
Maria, the brutalized peasant
girl he falls in love with. The
film’s exacting Technicolor
photography, excellent acting,
and length (132 minutes) are a
testament to the commitment
to fidelity.
Starring: Gary Cooper,
Ingrid Bergman, Akim
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9 p.m. in Avinger
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cents
or pleasure outweigh future
costs or threats of pain.
Heavy punishment
programs can also incur
unexpected social costs,
several years ago Nelson A.
Rockefeller, then governor of
New York proposed as an
answer to street crime that
harsh sentences, up 'to life
imprisonment, be imposed for
drug trafficking, and that
sterner enforcement and
heavier punishment be im
posed against drug users,
many of whom are engaged in
street crime. The “lock-’em-
up” approach seemed sensible
and hardheaded to many New
Yorkers fearful of walking the ,
city streets and to numerous
law enforcement officials.
Yet a recently conducted
“New York Times” survey of
100 New York City judges,
reported on Jan. 2,1977, found
that the new, very tough
narcotics law failed to deter
illegal drug use in the city.
Furthermore, over half the
judges believed the laws had
worsened the situation as
youngsters - immune from
the harsher provisions - had
been recruited into the drug
traffic. This is an unexpected
social cost of punishment.
There are many others.
Particularly for young
people, being a criminal may
even have advantages over
working in a boring and
unrewarding job. One can
earn far more stealing cars
than washing them. Even the
risk may prove advantageous.
In some circles, a “jolt” in
prison offers an affirmation of
manhood - as well as ad
vanced training in criminal
skills and identity. Thus, the
administration of justice can
generate criminality as well
as deter it.
Actually, the most
promising targets of
deterrence are white-collar
criminals -- business
executives and professionals -
who have the most to lose by
conviction for a crime and are
more likely to weigh the
potential costs of committing
crime against its benefits.
FUNDAMENTAL
CONTRADICTIONS
There are no easy
prescriptions for crime in
America. It has become an
intrinsic part of life in this
country as a result of fun
damental contradictions of
American society. We
maintain an egalitarian
ideology amidst a history of
slavery and contemporary
unemployment. We say we are
against organized crime, but
millions of us enjoy and
consume its goods and ser
vices - drugs, gambling,
prostitution, pornography.
We demand heavier
punishment - longer prison
terms - yet fail to appreciate
the social and economic costs
of prisons. We support the
Constitution and its protection
of individual liberties - yet
criticize judges who insist the
police conduct themselves in
accord with constitutional
protection.
Our legacy of slavery,
immigration, and culture ,
conflict, combined with the
ideologies of free enterprise
and constitutional democracy
is unique in the world. As
David Bayley’s recent work
comparing high American
with low Japanese crime rates
shows, we are not strictly
comparable to Japan or, for
that matter, to any place else.
Although politicians - as
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