Sense and Nonsense about Criminal Justice

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the link between the criminal justice system and politics in the United States. It suggests that independence for the criminal justice system would have to be paired with strict oversight, but could permit the development of new criminal justice policies that were based entirely on the empirical evidence and not on the political ideologies of politicians. The paper bases its arguments on "Sense and Nonsense about Crime and Drugs" by S. Walker.

From the Paper:

"Perhaps the most significant reason why criminal justice policies have had such limited effect is because they have not been based on available evidence and rigorous testing. Evidence-based policymaking is only recently coming into its own in the United States. This trend in criminal justice is perhaps the most important one to date. It should be encouraged without question. Evidence-based policymaking will help actors in the criminal justice system to sort through the current policies and weed out the ones that simply do not work to reduce crime or, worse, actually have an adverse effect on the goals of the system. Additionally, this approach to criminal justice can help design new, more effective, policies that are based on sound science and evidence instead of wishful thinking and faith in commonsense metaphors. It short, the lack of evidence-based testing in the criminal justice system has been a major factor in the limited effectiveness of existing policies. Incorporating empirical evidence and testing into the policy process will improve the quality of criminal justice policies in the future."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Walker, S. (2006). Sense and Nonsense about Crime and Drugs. 6th ed. Belmost, CA: Thomson Higher Education.

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