Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapters 9 and 10 from the required textbook. Select and then define a significa

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10 Reducing Crime and Reforming the Criminal Justice System

Ryan Tarinelli/AP/Associated Press

Learning Outcomes After reading this chapter, you should be able to

• Discuss the ideological and financial obstacles to criminal justice system reform.

• Describe the disconnect between popular assumptions and scientific evidence about crime.

• Explain evidence-driven crime-control strategies in contemporary America.

• Contrast retributivism and restorative justice as guiding principles for criminal justice.

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Section 10.1 The Challenge of the Status Quo

In August of 2010, after serving nearly 10 years in prison for two bank robberies, Lance Brown walked out of a North Carolina prison a free man. Since his release he has been strug- gling with poverty and homelessness and was forced out of a homeless shelter for fighting with another patron. In April of 2012, Brown approached his parole officer and asked what he needed to do to get put back in prison! His parole officer referred him to a series of agencies and support services that Brown did not pursue. Instead, he walked into the local courthouse in Columbus Georgia and threatened to kill the president of the United States. However, offi- cers did not believe that Brown’s threats were credible and thus there were no consequences. Apparently frustrated, Brown exited the courthouse and promptly threw a brick through the glass front door of the courthouse. Brown was held in jail for 9 months awaiting trial. At trial he was sentenced to 1 month in jail and 3 years probation for malicious mischief. In court, Brown noted that his behavior would result in shelter in a facility in which at least, “some- one’s going to offer me a sandwich and drink” (Associated Press, 2012, p. 1).

Many experts believe that the problem of crime in America is grounded in larger issues of social structural marginality. Thus, issues like the economy, poverty, health care, and educa- tion may be central in an encompassing crime-control strategy.

10.1 The Challenge of the Status Quo One of the paramount challenges in criminology is developing systematic, evidence-driven and practical public policies to address the crime problem. However, public policy does not exist in a vacuum; developing, implementing, and evaluating cost-effective and pragmatic crime-control policies is only part of the challenge. Many experts highlight that changes in criminal justice policy include a series of obstacles. There are ideological barriers to change given America’s historic support of “tough on crime” policies. There are individuals and industries that benefit from the criminal justice system in its existing form. And individuals and groups reap massive profits from committing crime in America and internationally.

Thus, the next era of criminal justice policy faces a two-pronged challenge. First, to develop sound public policy to reduce crime and its attendant harms. And second, to overcome obsta- cles to change and the vested interests in the status quo.

The Crime Control Industrial Complex Classical sociological theorist Karl Marx made a series of astute observations about crime that are as relevant today as they were 150 years ago. Marx argued that the social-structural dynamics of capitalism would shape crime as well as how society would attempt to control crime. Economic obstacles may be one of the most significant barriers to criminal justice sys- tem reform.

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Section 10.1 The Challenge of the Status Quo

Industries associated with crime control provide a series of economic and social opportuni- ties for individuals in modern society. A series of legal system actors depend on the criminal justice system for employment including police, judges, prison guards, and many others. In addition, a number of individuals and professions depend on industries directly related with the criminal justice system. For example, both college professors and college students may study criminology and criminal justice. Publishing companies regularly publish textbooks and other books that are required in college courses. Private security companies install and monitor alarm systems in private homes and businesses. These firms may also provide pri- vate security personnel to individuals and communities. Construction companies build and maintain America’s jails and prisons. Prisons require laundry services, telephone companies, and electronic surveillance systems. The garment industry produces uniforms for both crimi- nal justice system employees and inmates. Crime and crime control are big business.

Criminologists and sociologists often refer to the series of individuals and industries that depend on crime as the crime control industrial complex. This concept has a rich and important history. The ideological origin of this construct was former President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address in 1961, which warned America about what Eisenhower coined the “military industrial complex.” In this famous speech, Eisenhower reflected on witnessing world war and the corresponding human and social toll of widespread violence. Within the framework of American democracy, he warned the American public to be extra judicious when deciding the appropriateness of war. He expressed concern that America had created a massive, expensive, and influential military machine that had the potential to artificially encourage the country to go to war, in part to justify its own existence; that military elites have the power to potentially influence the country to use its military might in part because of the economic necessity created by the military industrial complex. Criminologists have built upon Eisenhower’s rich military industrial complex concept by applying it to a series of criminal justice issues.

Journalist Eric Schlosser (1998) applied Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex concept to the economics of prisons. Schlosser defined the prison industrial complex as “a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of the actual need” (Schlosser, 1998, p. 1). Similarly, this concept can be applied more broadly to crime control in general. Thus, we can define the crime control industrial complex as “a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on [crime control] regardless of the actual need” (Schlosser, 1998, p. 1).

Any systemic reforms to the criminal justice system must overcome possible resistance from the crime control and prison industrial complexes. Thus, as suggested by Karl Marx, economic dynamics are likely central to the future of criminal justice policy in America.

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Section 10.1 The Challenge of the Status Quo

Web Field Trip: Corrections Corporation of America

Up until the 1980s, all correctional facilities were public or government owned and operated. Then a few individuals started a private company that promised to design, construct, expand, and manage prisons, jails, and detention facilities. They also provide inmate transportation and a multitude of in-prison programs. While private correctional facilities promise to be bet- ter than public ones and to offer more resources and a more effective system, they are also companies trying to make a profit. The ethics behind this business model and whether private facilities are in fact better than public prisons, is up for debate.

Visit the website of the private prison company the Corrections Corporation America (recently rebranded as Core Civic) at http://www.correctionscorp.com/. Click on “Who We Are” from the “About CCA” dropdown menu and watch the embedded video on that page.

Critical Thinking Questions 1. How would you describe the tone of the video? 2. What are the pros and cons of privatization in the criminal justice system? 3. Are there other ways to reform prisons that do not include privatization?

The Profitability of Crime Crime is also big business for criminals; the scope and profitability of crime on the inter- national stage is striking. According to one report, the global gross proceeds from criminal behavior is estimated at $1.6 to $2.2 trillion annually (Channing, 2017)! If “crime” was a sov- ereign nation, it would be one of the largest 20 economies in the world (Dahl, 2012).

The most profitable international criminal industries are counterfeiting (up to $1.13 trillion per year), illegal drug trafficking (up to $652 billion per year), and human trafficking ($150.2 billion per year) (Channing, 2017). Any of these organizations may have enough power and resources to destabilize and threaten the viability of existing governments in the developing world. In addition, human traffickers victimize approximately 2.4 million people each year. The UN describes this horrific criminal industry as, “a shameful crime of modern-day slav- ery” (Dahl, 2012, p. 1). Finally, many types of organized criminal groups engage in corruption, which is estimated to have a global cost of $2.6 trillion, equal to 5% of the world’s economy (United Nations Security Council, 2018).

International criminal business is often associated with organized crime. However, modern organized criminal groups tend to be more fluid and dynamic compared to past decades. In previous eras, international organized criminal groups were often strictly hierarchical in nature and typically restricted membership by national origin and ethnic or racial heri- tage. Modern groups tend to be more flexible. They often cooperate to commit one or more criminal endeavors and then disband. Thus, traditional international law enforcement strate- gies targeting group leaders are less viable strategies (Dahl, 2012; Elliott, 1997). The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (n.d.) adds that the changing nature of technology and access to international information and relationships continue to increase the effectiveness of transnational organized criminal groups. Organized crime is linked to drug trades, human trafficking, money laundering, maritime crime and piracy, cybercrime, and political crimes, among others.

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Section 10.1 The Challenge of the Status Quo

Reducing the profitability of crime may be central to criminal justice system reform. Given the lucrativeness of crime, both internationally and within America, reforms might seek out practical ways to reduce the profits, and thus the rewards, from engaging in criminal behav- ior. While the scope of these problems can be daunting, criminologists and policy experts have highlighted some areas that are ripe for reform to reduce the profitability of engaging in criminal behavior. The evidence suggests that reducing the profitability of drug crime might be a prudent approach to undermining the profitability of international organized crime. However, these suggested reforms also must overcome entrenched ideologies that may be resistant to change.

Web Field Trip: Drug Drones

From speedboats to homemade submarines to catapults, drug traffickers have become adept at developing new methods of smuggling their products. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, some cartels have begun using drones to transport drugs into the United States. American officials have responded by developing new methods to track and cripple the traffickers’ ability to transport drugs.

To learn more about this latest battle between drug traffickers and law enforcement, watch the video “Drug Cartels Using Drones To Smuggle Across Borders” at https://nowthisnews .com/videos/weed/drug-cartels-using-drones-to-smuggle-across-borders.

Critical Thinking Questions 1. How do drones reaffirm the challenges of combating international organized crime? 2. What strategies do you think would be effective to reduce the supply of illegal drugs in

America? 3. What strategies do you think would be effective to reduce the demand for illegal drugs

in America?

Ideological Challenges to the Status Quo The chapters in this book have presented various theories to explain crime and described a range of crimes. While crime is declining, it remains a significant social issue, and America continues to have significantly higher rates of violent crime compared to other Western dem- ocratic societies (Lynch & Pridemore, 2011). In addition, the nature of crime and how society responds to crime is changing. Advances in technology give law enforcement new tools to monitor what they believe may be potential criminal activity. Information sharing between law enforcement agencies and the private sector has created a new era of policing. Many of these changes in how the criminal justice system and society react to crime have been shaped by the attacks on September 11, 2001. The post-9/11 world has created public fear of new types of crimes. Not only are people afraid of being victimized by traditional street crime but concerns about terrorism shape society’s experiences in places ranging from airports to schools. Reviewing recent works about crime and punishment illustrate the changing nature of crime and society. Moreover, these cornerstone works examine the ideologies of crime con- trol and public interpretations of the crime problem.

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Section 10.1 The Challenge of the Status Quo

The Culture of Control In The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society, legal scholar and sociologist David Garland (2001) presents an overview of the changes in society’s attitudes about crime and punishment since the 1970s. Garland argues that changes in social condi- tions, such as growing insecurities about safety and increased perceptions of risk, have led society to adopt increasingly punitive responses to crime. Crime rates did not rise, but fear of crime, possibly facilitated by the government and media, did grow. According to the analysis, increased vengeance is not reserved for the most serious offenses. Rather, a punitive approach is applied to juvenile offenses and growing numbers of less serious offenses.

According to Garland, society reacts emotionally to the belief that crime is an ever-increasing problem. In turn, this fear of crime has changed the tone of criminal justice policy. The media creates images of “unruly youth, dangerous predators, and incorrigible career criminals” (Garland, 2001, p. 10). Rather than creating laws that react to empirical realities of increased crime rates, the government often passes legislation based on sensationalized media accounts. Thus, contemporary criminal justice is focused on providing security for the public, contain- ing danger, and identifying and containing any type of risk.

Protecting the public is a highly-politicized process. This process often omits criminological researchers and practitioners from the creation of criminal justice policy in favor of politi- cians and members of society who have been victims of crime. Accordingly, laws are often named after crime victims. For example, Megan’s law was named for Megan Kanka who was raped and murdered by a neighbor who was a two-time convicted pedophile. In 1996, Presi- dent Bill Clinton signed the Megan’s Law bill into law. Nearly 20 years after the law was estab- lished, society is struggling with the increasing numbers of sex offenders who, when released from prison, often abscond from parole. Increasing restrictive provisions, such as limitations on where they can live, and public backlash when they move into neighborhoods has created an unintended consequence. Instead of improved supervision when released, Megan’s law has likely made it more difficult for law enforcement to track sex offenders.

Garland also discusses the expanding infrastructure of crime prevention and community safety. An ever-growing network of partnerships between law enforcement agencies are increasingly participating in information sharing. The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Fed- eral Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and local enforcement agencies have created networks in which they work together on public safety initiatives. These initiatives are largely preventa- tive in nature. They do not react to crime, as traditional law enforcement, but watch, track, and collect data about individuals and groups that may engage in criminal activity.

Multiagency information sharing and crime prevention are likely sound strategies, but in practice some controversial cases have raised important questions about individual civil lib- erties. For example, in 2012, the media learned that the New York Police Department (NYPD) had been granted permission to surveil Muslim students at Rutgers University, New Jersey’s largest public university in 2007. Apparently, the surveillance expanded to include Muslims in Newark, New Jersey, and other nearby cities. Media accounts suggest that Newark’s mayor, the New Jersey State Police, and Rutgers’ officials approved this surveillance. However, no individual Muslim people or members of the mosques where they worshipped were sus- pected or accused of engaging in terrorist or other criminal activity.

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Section 10.1 The Challenge of the Status Quo

Not only are law enforcement agencies creating new alliances, but within society crime con- trol is becoming increasingly commercialized. Private police, security guards, private security systems installed in homes, and private prisons are more common. While security was once the responsibility of the state, private citizens are relying on private industries to provide them with the services the government once did. Garland attributes some of the growth of the private security business to the perpetual sense of crisis present in society.

Governing Through Crime In Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear, Jonathan Simon (2007) argues that freedom and equality are the price society is willing to pay to achieve a sense of safety. Consider, for example, the dramatic federal laws enacted by the federal government in response to the 9/11 attacks; the Patriot Act, signed into law one month after the attacks, gave the government sweeping powers to monitor electronic communications and people of interest in the hopes of thwarting further terrorist attacks.

However, society’s fear of crime and violence, Simon argues, is irrational. He points out that the title of his book, “governing through crime” refers to the idea that power and authority in the United States are wielded based on the constant threat of crime and violence. Society typically awards policies and procedures created in the name of preventing crime with less scrutiny and immediate legitimacy. According to Simon, society is more willing than ever to relinquish rights while accepting social institutions’ expanding powers.

Prisons of Poverty In Prisons of Poverty, Loic Wacquant (2009) points out society’s

intensified surveillance of so-called problem neighborhoods, increased anxi- ety over and representation of youth delinquency, harassment of the home- less and immigrants in public space, night curfews and “zero tolerance,” the relentless growth of custodial populations, the deterioration and privatiza- tion of correctional services, the disciplinary monitoring of recipients of pub- lic assistance. (Wacquant, 2009, p. 1)

He argues that governments, the United States and European Union in particular, are relying on the criminal justice system to control the disorder that has resulted from social problems. More specifically, mass unemployment, the growing wage gap between social classes, and the shrinking networks of state social support have a direct and important connection with crime (see Chapter 3). He refers to the phenomenon as a transition from the social state to the penal state.

Wacquant pays particular attention to New York City and the aggressive policy of fighting quality-of-life crimes based on the broken windows theory. According to the approach, by focusing on relatively minor offenses, such as vandalism and loitering by homeless people, more serious crime will decrease. Law enforcement will be sending a message that smaller offenses will not be tolerated, and offenders will be less likely to target those communities. Poor, disenfranchised, or powerless people living in urban areas are most likely to commit minor offenses such as quality-of-life violations. Waquant argues this creates a dangerous underclass in the eyes of the public.

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Section 10.1 The Challenge of the Status Quo

Wacquant also points out how the changing approach to controlling crime benefits the state that puts the legislation in place. The penal state is justified by the images of fear that the government and media create for public consumption. The combination of unemployment, immigrants, and criminality has often been used to justify the penal state. Powerful law enforcement becomes necessary, then, to protect the public from the imminent threat of these growing social problems. One way to protect society is by collecting increasing amounts of personal information—from the Internet searches of individuals, to their travel patterns, and even the groups to which they make charitable contributions. Creating data-bases of private information about individuals, which increasingly includes genetic data, permits the gov- ernment to surveil without individuals’ consent or knowledge. Budgets for maintaining and strengthening this penal state continue to grow as the state’s social support or welfare role diminishes.

With Liberty and Justice for Some In With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, Glenn Greenwald (2011) outlines the inequalities that permeate the United States’ criminal justice system. He argues that not only do people with political and economic power have advantages within the criminal justice system but they are actually allowed to break the law, largely without legal consequences. It is not only that the wealthy have better lawyers but many corporate acts that cause massive harm are not defined as crimes in the first place.

One of the founding principles of the United States is that the law is meant to act as an equaliz- ing force. The sayings such as “all people are created equally” and “justice is blind” reflect the

ideal that the country’s system of laws is created with an emphasis on fundamental notions of fairness. Today, Green- wald argues, there is a two-tiered system of justice with the politically and financially powerful largely exempt from the system that imprisons the poor and powerless at a higher rate than any other country in the world. As the powerful gain protection, the powerless become subject to increas- ingly punitive punishments.

What Greenwald calls “elite immunity” is clearly illustrated by the financial meltdown of 2008. Federal Reserve chair- man Ben Bernanke testified in front of Congress that the United States’ economy was days away from a meltdown. Years of banks issuing high-risk mortgages and selling bank products, such as derivatives, without the assets to back them eventually had a significant impact on the health of the American and world economies. The United States’ largest banks needed money to be able to pay their debts. In Octo- ber 2009, Congress gave $700 billion in taxpayer money to avoid the banks going bankrupt and the ripple effects the bankruptcies would have on the American economy. How- ever, damage had largely already been done to Wall Street. The stock market responded negatively and dramatically to the fears and instability of the economy.

Eric Risberg/Associated Press Failure to hold top bank officials criminally responsible for the 2008 financial crisis is an example of “elite immunity” according to Glenn Greenwald.

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Section 10.2 Myths and Misconceptions About Crime

Government officials regulate banks and Wall Street transactions. However, many experts contend that the treasury secretary has a symbiotic and cozy relationship with the top offi- cials of the banks and Wall Street tycoons he is supposed to be regulating. Greenwald suggests that there is no steadfast federal oversight of the financially powerful people who created the economic downturn. Neither they nor the government regulators who allowed the crisis to happen have ever been held criminally responsible for their actions.

Greenwald presents powerful examples from modern history, from Watergate to President George W. Bush’s controversial actions surrounding the war in Iraq, to demonstrate how America’s elite often go unscathed by the law. He explains how the media, the government, and the criminal justice system have each played a role in creating the two-tiered system of laws we have today.

The work of David Garland, Jonathan Simon, Loic Wacquant, and Glenn Greenwald describes the current state of the criminal justice system. Their work contains several common themes. Laws are differentially enforced. People’s criminal justice system vulnerability often depends on their social location and who they are—their race, gender, and socioeconomic status. More- over, these cornerstone works suggest that society is driven by an irrational fear of crime and violence. This irrational fear often centers on violent, interpersonal street crime committed by strangers and often ignores the harms and crimes of corporate America. In examining the present criminal justice system, these scholars are debunking the myths commonly believed by the members of society.

10.2 Myths and Misconceptions About Crime The authors’ works described in the previous section examine the current state of crime and criminal justice in the United States. The authors point out how social changes have affected the way society thinks about and reacts to crime. Bohm and Walker (2006) refer to crime myths as misconceptions that lead to misguided criminal justice policies. The public, the media, politicians, and the politically and economically powerful sustain these myths.

Case Study: Officer Bricknell

Peter Moskos is an associate professor of law and political science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Moskos earned a PhD in sociology from Harvard University in 2004 and also served as a police officer in the high-crime Eastern District of inner-city Baltimore from 1999 to 2001. He combined his lived experience as a patrol officer with his scholarly insight into criminal justice issues in an award-winning book titled Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Bal- timore’s Eastern District (Moskos, 2008).

This book provides tremendous insight into a series of criminal justice issues. Moskos presents a scathing evaluation of the police academy. He advocates for individual police officer discre- tion, especially for low-level crime. He criticizes the war on drugs and articulates the challenge of enforcing the war on drugs in neighborhoods where robust open-air drug markets flourish. Moreover, he provides insight into issues of police culture, socialization, and corruption.

(continued on next page)

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Section 10.2 Myths and Misconceptions About Crime

The Myth That Crime and Criminality Can Be Accurately Measured It is a myth that crime statistics accurately show what crimes are being committed and what crimes are most harmful (see Chapter 1). Most crime and violence is unreported. Researchers refer to this as the dark figure of crime. When law enforcement is unable to accurately count crime, society has an inaccurate picture of offenders.

Increases in the number of arrests do not necessarily correspond to an actual increase in the number of offenses being committed. For example, sometimes the police will adopt a policy of proactive policing—that is, taking the initiative to address public order offenses such as clearing streets of people who are loitering and may be homeless, rather than responding to calls from the public in response to crimes after they have been committed. Police activity will be increased, but it is in part due to their proactive policies not because crime rates have actually increased.

While still imperfect, the best measures of …

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9Crime in Schools and the Workplace

Ed Andrieski/Associated Press

Learning Outcomes After reading this chapter, you should be able to

• Discuss the nature and extent of crime at primary and secondary schools, including effects of such crime and methods and policies to address them.

• Discuss the nature and extent of crime at college and universities, including effects of such crime and methods and policies to address them.

• Discuss the nature and extent of crime in the workplace, including effects of such crime and methods and policies to address them.

• Explain why crimes occur at schools and in the workplace.

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Section 9.1 Nature and Extent of School Crime

On April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, before killing themselves. Although the attack occurred at a public high school, it was not typical of school shootings elsewhere in the nation. Indeed, their intention was to kill everyone at the school, including law enforcement officers, first responders, and parents by detonating bombs rigged in their cars.

According to the most definitive account of the attacks, both boys participated in and planned for the assault but for vastly different reasons (Cullen, 2009). One was an

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