6.6: Why is Policy so Important in Criminal Justice

Everyone is affected by the criminal justice system through public policy. The policy represents social control and ensures members of society are compliant and conform to the laws. Policies include issues related: to juvenile justice, drug legislation, intimate partner violence and other forms of gender-based violence, prison overcrowding, school safety, new federal immigration laws, terrorism, and national security.

Modern-day crime policies can be traced to changes in crime and delinquency in the 1960s. That decade saw major increases in the crime rate along with widespread social unrest because of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. The work of the 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice highlighted the crime problem, and the criminal justice system’s failure to address the problem. The commission called for new approaches, programs, policies, funding models, and research on the cause of crime. In addressing the causes of crime (theory), and using appropriate data collection (research), effective policies and programs could be proposed.

When discussing crime policies, it is important to understand the difference between crime prevention and crime control. Policies and programs designed to reduce crime are crime prevention techniques. Specifically, crime prevention entails any action designed to reduce the actual level of crime and/or the perceived fear of crime. On the other hand, crime control alludes to the maintenance of the crime level. Policies, such as the three strikes law for instance, seek to prevent future crime by incapacitating offenders through incarceration. Other policies like sex offender registration acknowledge that sex offenders exist and registering them will control the level of deviation, sometimes preventing or perceiving to prevent future offenses.

Public policies and laws are created at different levels of government, with micro-level policies enacted on the local level and macro level applied at the federal or state level. For example, at the local level, some towns and cities might create specific ordinances tailored to their unique needs, such as banning cigarette smoking in the downtown area. At the federal level, policies are created that apply to the federal criminal justice system and can apply to states as well. However, federal laws can differ from state laws, such as marijuana legalization. Individual organizations can also make policies that address their individual agency needs, such as requirements for local police officers. Therefore, depending on who creates the policies, they can be far-reaching or extremely localized.

Stages of Policy Development

The stages of policy development can generally be categorized into 5 general stages. U.S. policy development encompasses several stages. Most policy models generally include the following stages: (1) identifying the issue to be addressed by the proposed policy, (2) placement on the agenda, (3) formulation of the policy, (4) implementation of the policy, and (5) evaluation of the policy. This is similar to the community police response acronym SARA (scanning, analysis, response, and assessment) and uses some of the same techniques, but on a much bigger, national level.

Identifying the Problem and Agenda-Setting

Identifying the problem involves addressing what is happening and why it is an issue. In criminal justice, this might look at the increase in opioid use and overdoses or acts of youth violence. Once the issue is identified, there can be a serious debate about the plans of the policy. Once it is decided what the policy will look like, it is placed on the agenda. This is perhaps the most politicized part of the process as it involves many different stakeholders. It involves identifying the legislative, regulatory, judicial, or other institutions responsible for policy adoption and formulation.

Formulation and Adoption

The next stage involved adopting the policy. Depending on the nature of the policy, this could involve a new law or an executive order.

Implementation of the Policy

Implementation is about moving forward, taking action, and spending money. It involves hiring new staff or additional police officers. This is where policies often stall because of the lack of funding. For example, a popular program in 1990, Weed and Seed, involved “weeding” out criminals (targeting arrest efforts) and “seeding” new programs (instituting after-school programs, drug treatment facilities, etc.). The weeding portion of the program was a great success, but the program ultimately failed because of a lack of funding to adequately seed new community programming. Funding is a major roadblock for proper implementation.

Evaluation

Finally, the evaluation examines the efficacy of the policy. There are three different types of evaluation: Impact, Process, and Cost-benefit analysis. Impact (outcome) evaluations focus on what changes after the introduction of the crime policy. Changes in police patrol practices aimed at reducing the level of residential burglaries in an area are evaluated in terms of subsequent burglaries. The difficulty with impact evaluations is that changes in the crime rate are rarely, if ever, due to a single intervening variable. For example, after the implementation of curfew laws for juvenile offenders, juvenile crime decreased. Can we say that was because of curfew laws? The entire crime rate in America decreased at the same time. Attributing a single outcome based on a solitary intervention is problematic.

Process evaluations consider the implementation of a policy or program and involve determining the procedure used to implement the policy. These are detailed, descriptive accounts of the implementation of the policy including the goals of the program, who is involved, the level of training, the number of clients served, and changes to the program overtime. Unfortunately, process evaluations do not address the actual impact policy has on the crime problem, just what was done about a specific issue or who was involved. While this is indeed a limitation, it is essential to know the inner workings of a program or policy if it is to be replicated.

Cost-benefit evaluations, or analyses, seek to determine if the costs of a policy are justified by the benefits accrued. A ubiquitous example of this would be an evaluation of the popular anti-drug D.A.R.E. program of the 1980s and 1990s. The D.A.R.E. program was a school-based prevention program aimed at preventing drug use among elementary school-aged children. Rigorous evaluations of the program show that it was ineffective and sometimes actually increased drug use in some youth. The cost of this program was roughly 1.3 billion dollars a year (about $173 to $268 per student per year) to implement nationwide (once all related expenses, such as police officer training and services, materials, and supplies, school resources, etc., were factored in). Using a cost-benefit analysis, is that a good use of money to support an ineffective program?

Policy formation is frequently a reactive response to pressing social problems, and many policies originate from grassroots advocacy efforts. To illustrate, consider a community experiencing elevated rates of juvenile delinquency. A common legislative response is to hold parents legally accountable for their children’s misconduct, under the assumption that increased parental responsibility will deter such behavior. Under a parental responsibility statute, the parents of a juvenile who steals a vehicle and causes property damage may face legal liability for their child’s actions. The following section examines the stages of the policy development process.

Having explored the structure and process of the criminal justice system, Chapter 7 examines the competing values that shape how that system operates. The tension between swift crime control and the protection of individual rights runs through every stage of criminal justice, from policing to sentencing, and this chapter provides the conceptual tools to analyze that tension.