Page 257 - Sociology and You

600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Chapter 7 Deviance and Social Control
227
Violent crime rate
1980 1985
1990 1995
1998 2000
Why is the juvenile violent crime Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Juvenile Offenders and Victims, 1999, and Office of
Justice Programs, 2000.
There were also fewer juvenile victims of murder—down from almost 3,000 to about 2,000. Juvenile crime, in short, returned to the rates typical of the years prior to the crack epidemic of the late 1980s.
Why has juvenile crime gone down? Several factors are said to account for this decline in juvenile crime. For one, there has been a decline in the de- mand for crack cocaine. Remaining crack gangs that provided guns to juveniles have reached truces. Repeat violent juvenile offenders have been given stiffer sentences. Finally, police are cracking down on illegal guns on the street.
Approaches to Crime Control
The criminal justice system is made up of the institutions and processes responsible for enforcing criminal statutes. It includes the police, courts, and correctional system. A criminal justice system may draw on four approaches to control and punish lawbreakers—deterrence, retribution, incarceration, and rehabilitation.
Does punishment discourage crime? The deterrence approach uses the threat of punishment to discourage criminal actions. A basic idea of this approach is that punishment of convicted criminals will serve as an example to keep other people from committing crimes. There is considerable debate on the effectiveness of deterrence (DiIulio and Piehl, 1991). Research indi- cates that the threat of punishment does deter crime if potential lawbreakers know two things: that they are likely to get caught and that the punishment will be severe. In the U.S., however, the punishment for crime is usually not certain, swift, or severe. Consequently, punishment does not have the deter- rent effect that it could have (Pontell, 1984).
Capital punishment (the death penalty) is a special case. Over four thou- sand people have been executed in the United States since 1930, the year the federal government began gathering statistics on capital punishment. Unless
Figure 7.7 Juvenile Violent Crime Declines.
rate in the U.S. dropping?
Visit soc.glencoe.com and click on Textbook Updates–Chapter 7 for an update of the data.
criminal justice system
system comprising institutions and processes responsible for enforcing criminal statutes
deterrence
discouraging criminal acts by threatening punishment
Arrests per 100,000 juveniles 10–17 years