Politics & Policy

class: center, middle
background-image: url("tsu-logo.jpg")
background-position: 50% 70%
background-size: 40%

# Politics, The Criminal Justice System, & Policy
## CJ 4310: Special Problems in the Criminal Justice System

**Seth Watts, PhD**

School of Criminal Justice & Criminology

August 25, 2025

---

class: middle

## Overview

1. Know the syllabus

1. What we will cover in this course

1. Politics and Policy

1. Crime Control vs. Due Process

1. Criminal Justice Policy

---

## Important Syllabus Information

- There will be no syllabus quiz but please read it over

- Pay close attention to:
  - Listed readings
  - Class schedule
  - Assignments

- If for some reason you lose access to Canvas at any point, I will be trying to keep everything up-to-date on my [personal website](https://www.sethbwatts.com/courses/)
  - You will just need to locate this course (CJ 4310)
  - Also, **email me** if you lose access to Canvas and reach out to IT for assistance
  
---
class: center, middle, inverse
# What will this course cover?

---

## The Criminal Justice System (CJS)

<img src="crime-trends.png" width="70%" style="display: block; margin: auto;" />
.center.small[Source: [Fox, 2024](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-08-19/crime-keeps-falling-when-will-voters-believe-it?srnd=undefined&sref=U3dOGIDF)]

--
- Do the police effect crime levels?

- Does the court system control crime?

- Does the correctional system control crime?

---

## Other Interventions

- Do community members informally (or formally) help reduce crime?

- What about the physical environment? Does improved lighting reduce victimization rates?

- Does gun shot detection systems help police respond quicker and apprehend offenders?

- Does employment lead to reductions in offending?

---
class: center, middle, inverse

# Politics and Policy
Mays & Ruddell (2019) Ch. 1

---

## Why Start with Politics and Policy?

- The CJS does not exist in a vacuum
  - It exists within a larger structure of legal, political, and social influences

- Shifts between so called "lenient" and "tough-on-crime" policies are largely a result of the political process

- This process plays out across local-, state-, and federal-levels

???

---
## What are the Sources of Law?

</div>

- **Constitutional law**

- **Common law**

- **Statutory law**

- **Case law**

- **Administrative (Regulatory) law**

???
- Ex. Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth Amendments
- Ex. Murder: “the killing of another human being with malice aforethought.”
- Ex. Murder (First, Second, Third degree; codified in statute)
- Ex. Tennessee v. Garner (1985)
- Ex. Clean Water Act enforced by Environmental Protection Agency

---
class: center, middle, inverse
## What is Public Policy?

> At its core, policy is a course of action or a direction established by one of the three branches of government—executive, legislative, or judicial— or by the permanent bureaucracy housed in administrative agencies.

.right[Mays & Ruddell, 2019: p. 5]

---

## What is Public Policy?

- **Policy issues**
    - Substantive v. Symbolic

- **Actors**
    - High ranking officials, judges, front-line personnel

- **Resources**
    - Allocation and distribution

- **Institutions**
    - Three branches of government across local-, state-, and federal-levels

???
- symbolic = "quick fixes" (e.g., superficial responses)
- substantive = issues arising from the public
---

## Developing Policy in the CJS

Stages of policy development in the CJS:

<div style="position: absolute; top: 7em; right: 15em; height: 300px; width: 350px;">
<img src="policy-process.png" style="width: 100%;" />
  <p style="font-size: 0.75em; text-align: center; margin-top: 0.2em;">Generated using ChatGPT</p>
</div>

</div>

???
1. Agenda setting
  - whats the problem?

2. Policy formulation
  - development of alternatives to address problem

3. Policy implementation
  - actionable mechanisms to adopt and incorporate alternative response

4. Policy impact
  - did the intervention address the problem?

5. Policy evaluation
  - how effective is the intervention?

6. Policy termination
  - Do we want to keep this approach?
---

## Example of Policymaking

| **Stage**     | **Example**                                                                                   |
|------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Problem →           | 95% of BWC footage is never reviewed by anyone.                              |
| Formulate →         | Companies offer AI tools to review BWC footage automatically.                |
| Implement →          | Departments adopt AI tools to analyze and transcribe BWC data.               |
| Impact →            | Does the AI process 100% of footage and influence officer behavior?          |
| Evaluate →           | Track platform usage and behavior change metrics.                            |
| Terminate? →         | Determine if the tool is cost-effective and worth continuing.                |

.center[↑ This assumes linearity in the process; which is rarely the case]

---
class: center, middle, inverse

# Crime Control vs. Due Process
Mays & Ruddel (2019) Ch. 2

---

<img src="cc-dp.png" width="100%" style="display: block; margin: auto;" />
.center.small[Generated with ChatGPT]

???
- Herbert Packer describes these two models as *viewpoints* not correct or wrong models, per se
- A CJS likely embodies both viewpoints; It's not an either or scenario
---

## Comparing the Models

|**Feature**      |**Crime Control Model**    |**Due Process Model**    |
|-----------------|---------------------------|-------------------------|
|Presumption      |Guilty                     |Innocent                 |
|Concern          |False negatives            |False positives          |
|Model metaphor   |Assembly line              |Obstacle course          |
|Examples         |SQF, three-strikes laws, mandatory minimums |Miranda rights, eliminating cash bail, protections against warrantless searches |

- Due process is mentioned in the 5th and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution
  - 5th: "No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."
  - 14th: "No State ... shall deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."
  
- The CJS also moves along the spectrum when culture shifts (e.g., post-George Floyd resulted in a momentous shift towards the due process model)

???
- note the presumption of guilt is not intended to mean that the defendant will receive no trial if they wish, it is a matter of factual guilt (e.g., it is more likely than not that this individual did commit crime x)
---

## .center[Critiquing the Two Models]

.pull-left[
### .center[Crime Control Model]
- Elevated false positive risk (e.g., wrongful convictions)

- Potential loss of legitimacy

- Authoritarian-like
]

.pull-right[
### .center[Due Process Model]
- Inefficient

- Resource intensive

- Justice for victims may be delayed
]

---
class: center, middle, inverse

# Criminal Justice Policy
Mays & Ruddell (2019) Ch. 3

---

## Understanding Criminal Justice Policy

- Oftentimes policies are irrational, solely influenced by political forces, or not effective

- Why is this the case? Why can't rational policy be the rule and not the exception?

- Lets look at why this may be the case...

???
- As we learned last week these actions are generally impacted by politics, fear, and irrationality
  - life-long sentences for youth who committed non-homicide offenses, for example (Tonry, 2017)
- produced by a host of actors across local, state, and federal levels

---

## Challenges to Having Rational Policies

According to Mears (2010) here are some reasons that rational policy takes the backseat:

.pull-left[
- The politicization of crime

- False dichotomies

- Bad cases make bad policies

- Symbolic gestures
]

.pull-right[
- Public opinion

- Swings between extremes

- Limited production of policy research

]

<img src="trump.png" width="25%" style="display: block; margin: auto auto auto 0;" />
.left.small[Source: [Ransom, 2019](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/nyregion/central-park-five-trump.html)]

</div>

???
- perceived "soft-on-crime" politicians historically do not fare well
- "either or" choices: punishment or rehabilitation
- rare, egregious, and highly publicized cases elicit emotional responses which lead to emotional policy
- symbolic gestures make the public seem something is being done or that legislatures are doing the *right* thing
- The CJS is affected by politics, and politicians respond to the public
- extremes have the loudest voices and get the most air time
- much research is not adequately assessing the causal effect of said policy. Most is correlational and/or descriptive.

---
class: middle

## Key Takeaways

- Political processes *do* and *always will* affect the CJS and policy

- Policymaking is complex and produced by many different actors

- CJ policy often falls along a spectrum of two predominate viewpoints (CC vs. DP)

- There are a variety of barriers to implementing rational policy

<br >
> The criminal justice system is not primarily about crime control. It is about maintaining a certain social order.

.right[Herbert Packer, 1968]