Crime, Public Opinion, and Civil Liberties

Crime, Public Opinion, and Civil Liberties PDF Author: Shmuel Lock
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275964329
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Two original national surveys were conducted to examine the differences between mass and elite opinion regarding the policy making decisions of the Supreme Court in the area of criminal procedure. The results of the surveys indicate that those who have obtained a legal education are generally more protective of civil libertarian ideals. However, at times, when the Supreme Court has decided against what would be considered the civil libertarian alternative, lawyers are actually less civil libertarian than the rest of the mass public. Among the mass public, knowledge and education did not play as prominent a role in shaping opinions as did demographic variables. The survey results indicate that divergent opinions regarding the root causes of crime account for the differences in opinion regarding police methods in apprehending potential defendants. Most surprising, and most significant, is that contrary to reports in the mass media, the mass public is relatively protective of civil liberties. Professor Lock then proposes approaches whereby the courts and the legal profession can work to develop an even more supportive mass public. A study of particular importance to students, scholars, and public policy makers in the areas of constitutional and criminal law and public opinion.

Crime, Public Opinion, and Civil Liberties

Crime, Public Opinion, and Civil Liberties PDF Author: Shmuel Lock
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275964329
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Two original national surveys were conducted to examine the differences between mass and elite opinion regarding the policy making decisions of the Supreme Court in the area of criminal procedure. The results of the surveys indicate that those who have obtained a legal education are generally more protective of civil libertarian ideals. However, at times, when the Supreme Court has decided against what would be considered the civil libertarian alternative, lawyers are actually less civil libertarian than the rest of the mass public. Among the mass public, knowledge and education did not play as prominent a role in shaping opinions as did demographic variables. The survey results indicate that divergent opinions regarding the root causes of crime account for the differences in opinion regarding police methods in apprehending potential defendants. Most surprising, and most significant, is that contrary to reports in the mass media, the mass public is relatively protective of civil liberties. Professor Lock then proposes approaches whereby the courts and the legal profession can work to develop an even more supportive mass public. A study of particular importance to students, scholars, and public policy makers in the areas of constitutional and criminal law and public opinion.

Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy

Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy PDF Author: Nathaniel Persily
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195329414
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of American public opinion on the key constitutional controversies of the twentieth century: desegregation, school prayer, abortion, the death penalty, gay rights, and national security, to name just a few. It examines each controversy, explaining how public attitudes have shifted over time, especially in the wake of prominent Supreme Court decisions.

Seeing Red

Seeing Red PDF Author: Walter Nelles
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description


Crime and Punishment--changing Attitudes in America

Crime and Punishment--changing Attitudes in America PDF Author: Arthur L. Stinchcombe
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description


The Dimensions of Tolerance

The Dimensions of Tolerance PDF Author: Herbert McClosky
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610443861
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
Reaching well beyond traditional categories of analysis, McClosky and Brill have surveyed civil libertarian attitudes among the general public, opinion leaders, lawyers and judges, police officials, and academics. They analyze levels of tolerance in a wide range of civil liberties domains—first amendment rights, due process, privacy, and such emerging areas as women's and homosexual rights—and along numerous variables including political participation, ideology, age, and education. The authors explore fully the differences between civil libertarian values in the abstract and applying them in specific instances. They also examine the impact of tensions between liberties (free press and privacy, for example) and between tolerance and other values (such as public safety). They probe attitudes toward recently expanded liberties, finding that even the more informed and sophisticated citizen is often unable to read on through complex new civil liberties issues. This remarkable study offers a comprehensive assessment of the viability—and vulnerability—of beliefs central to the democratic system. It makes an invaluable contribution to the study of contemporary American institutions and attitudes.

The War On Our Freedoms

The War On Our Freedoms PDF Author: Richard C. Leone
Publisher: Public Affairs
ISBN: 9781586482107
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Examines the consequences of the war on terrorism through the loss of civil liberties in the name of homeland security.

Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution

Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution PDF Author: Charles Walton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199710015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
In the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, French revolutionaries proclaimed the freedom of speech, religion, and opinion. Censorship was abolished, and France appeared to be on a path towards tolerance, pluralism, and civil liberties. A mere four years later, the country descended into a period of political terror, as thousands were arrested, tried, and executed for crimes of expression and opinion. In Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution, Charles Walton traces the origins of this reversal back to the Old Regime. He shows that while early advocates of press freedom sought to abolish pre-publication censorship, the majority still firmly believed injurious speech--or calumny--constituted a crime, even treason if it undermined the honor of sovereign authority or sacred collective values, such as religion and civic spirit. With the collapse of institutions responsible for regulating honor and morality in 1789, calumny proliferated, as did obsessions with it. Drawing on wide-ranging sources, from National Assembly debates to local police archives, Walton shows how struggles to set legal and moral limits on free speech led to the radicalization of politics, and eventually to the brutal liquidation of "calumniators" and fanatical efforts to rebuild society's moral foundation during the Terror of 1793-1794. With its emphasis on how revolutionaries drew upon cultural and political legacies of the Old Regime, this study sheds new light on the origins of the Terror and the French Revolution, as well as the history of free expression.

Protecting Civil Liberties

Protecting Civil Liberties PDF Author: Sadie Silva
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1502661047
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description
Civil liberties enable people to speak their minds and to express their displeasure at certain laws or actions from the government. However, they are also sometimes endangered. This volume analyzes the most important civil liberties, examining ways the law may threaten or uplift them. It highlights the people involved in making sure liberties are protected when needs arise. Sidebars, annotated quotes from experts, and critical thinking questions help readers develop a comprehensive understanding of civil liberties in modern society. They will form their own opinions about basic freedoms, shaping themselves into more active, intelligent citizens.

Rights at Risk

Rights at Risk PDF Author: David K. Shipler
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307957624
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
An enlightening, intensely researched examination of violations of the constitutional principles that preserve individual rights and civil liberties from courtrooms to classrooms. With telling anecdote and detail, Pulitzer Prize–winner David K. Shipler explores the territory where the Constitution meets everyday America, where legal compromises—before and since 9/11—have undermined the criminal justice system’s fairness, enhanced the executive branch’s power over citizens and immigrants, and impaired some of the freewheeling debate and protest essential in a constitutional democracy. Shipler demonstrates how the violations tamper with America’s safety in unexpected ways. While a free society takes risks to observe rights, denying rights creates other risks. A suspect’s right to silence may deprive police of a confession, but a forced confession is often false. Honoring the right to a jury trial may be cumbersome, but empowering prosecutors to coerce a guilty plea means evidence goes untested, the charge unproved. An investigation undisciplined by the Bill of Rights may jail the innocent and leave the guilty at large and dangerous. Weakened constitutional rules allow the police to waste precious resources on useless intelligence gathering and frivolous arrests. The criminal courts act less as impartial adjudicators than as conveyor belts from street to prison in a system that some disillusioned participants have nicknamed “McJustice.” There is, always, a human cost. Shipler shows us victims of torture and abuse—not only suspected terrorists at the hands of the CIA but also murder suspects interrogated by the Chicago police. We see a poverty-stricken woman forced to share an attorney with her drug dealer boyfriend and sentenced to six years in prison when the conflict of interest turns her lawyer against her. We meet high school students suspended for expressing unwelcome political opinions. And we see a pregnant immigrant deported, after years of living legally in the country, for allegedly stealing a lottery ticket. Often shocking, yet ultimately idealistic, Rights at Risk shows us the shadows of America where the civil liberties we rightly take for granted have been eroded—and summons us to reclaim them.

Proactive Policing

Proactive Policing PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309467136
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred. Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing. Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.