NCJ Number
170275
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 25 Issue: 4 Dated: (1997) Pages: 325-334
Date Published
1997
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Crime control through law enforcement is generally considered to be a two-part process of apprehending and incapacitating or rehabilitating the guilty and deterring the innocent from crime by the threat of punishment.
Abstract
The analysis shows that protecting the innocent from harassment--detention, arrest, punishment, and other intrusions by the criminal justice system--is important in deterring crime. Specifically, the analysis indicates that deterrence from crime is weakened and then lost for a rational individual who holds the majority attitude toward risk if levels of rightful punishment and wrongful harassment are increased, as in a war on crime, and the likelihoods of wrongful and rightful punishment are reasonably close. The analysis is employed to show how the perceived likelihood of harassment may be a contributing factor in the disproportionately high representation of minority groups in the U.S. prison system. Crime control and harassment of the innocent is discussed in the context of fairness, procedures, rules, and laws of the legal system. 35 references, 9 notes, 1 table, and 2 figures