Crimes, Penalties, and Legislatures

The California State Assembly requested its own Office of Research to report on the deterrent effects of criminal penalties. Previous Assembly experience had indicated that information assembled by legislative technical staff could have a significant impact on legislation and social change. This paper summarizes and comments on the criminal-penalties study. It was found that there is no evidence that severe penalties deter crime more effectively than less severe penal ties. Critical deterrents vary according to type of individual and type of offense. Prisons are more destructive than rehabilitative. Increased investments in community-level action, including improving the efficiency of police activity and of community rehabilitation programs, are probably more effective crime-control measures than reliance upon institu tionalization of offenders. This paper focuses upon the arbi trary parole-decision process as a critical and representative defect in the criminal-justice system. More recently, study has led to the conclusion that the effects of "secondary" penalties, such as stigmatization, exposure to other criminals in prisons, loss of civil rights, reduced job opportunities, and family de terioration, have been underestimated. The ultimate public costs of intake of most offenders into the present criminal- justice system may far outweigh its deterrent or rehabilitative effects.