Attitudes Towards Crime and Punishment in Vermont : Public Opinion about an Experiment with Restorative Justice

By Greene, Judith

Book Id: WPLBN0000696341
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 5.59 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Attitudes Towards Crime and Punishment in Vermont : Public Opinion about an Experiment with Restorative Justice
Author:	Greene, Judith
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Law., Law & economy, Litigation and arbitration
Collections:	Law Library Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Department of Justice


Citation APA MLA Chicago Greene, B. J. (n.d.). Attitudes Towards Crime and Punishment in Vermont : Public Opinion about an Experiment with Restorative Justice. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Legal Reference Publication

Excerpt
Introduction: In 1994, the State of Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) asked Doble Research Associates to conduct a benchmark study of public opinion about crime and corrections in that state. Doble Research is a nonpartisan, public interest research firm that specializes in exploring the public?s thinking about complex policy issues before and after people learns more about them. The firm?s clients are chiefly foundations, government agencies, and other public service organizations. The 1994 study found: Low public confidence in virtually the entire criminal justice system; A huge majority, 75 percent, in favor of ?totally reviewing and changing the way Vermont deals with convicted criminals?; An even larger majority, an astonishing 92 percent, in favor of a concept that the DOC had on the drawing board: establishing a statewide network of communitybased reparative boards; Broad public willingness to use nonincarcerative sanctions with an array of nonviolent offenders.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents I . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 I1 . 111 . Executive Summary of the Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Putting the Results in Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Paradox of Public Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Reconnecting the Public to the Criminal Justice System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Background: The Development of Restorative Justice in Vermont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Rating the Performance of the Criminal Justice System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 1 . The Criminal Justice System as a Whole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 1 . 2 . TheDisconnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. 3 . 4 . IV . V . VI . The Public?s Starting Point: Three Misperceptions that Underlie Public Opinion . . . . . 25 2.Judges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.Juries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 4.ThePolice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 5 . State Prosecutors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 6 . Probation and Parole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 7 . Jails and Prisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 VI1 . VI11 . Beliefs about the Diversion Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Beliefs about Reparative Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 IX . Beliefs about the Furlough Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 x What to Do with Convicted Offenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Si Expanding the Authority of the Reparative Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 SI I Key Demographic Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 SIll SI V The Correlation between Beliefs and Knowledge. and Support for Change . . . . . . . . . . 74 Analytic Summary of Interviews with 15 Judges, State?s Attorneys, and Public Defenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Xi . Conclusions and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 S\?I Recommendations for Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .