Politics, Punishment, and Populism

by Windlesham

Overview

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was arguably the most important legislative achievement of President Clinton's first term. In this detailed account, Lord Windlesham, a prominent legal scholar, British legislator, and Oxford College Principal, brings his experience to bear in analyzing the forces inside and outside the 103rd Congress, which shaped the final content of the Act. Controversial issues discussed include racial justice, "three strikes and you're out" and mandatory sentencing, the Brady Act and the assault weapons ban, the competing claims of prison building and prevention programs, drug policies, and restrictions on repeat sex offenders after release from prison.

The narrative of Politics, Punishment, and Populism continues with the "Contract with America" and the crime policies adopted after the Republicans won control of both the House and Senate in the elections for the 104th Congress. The external pressures, and the Congressional tactics deployed to facilitate passage of such measures as the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, Megan's Law, and the Prison Litigation Reform Act, are examined in the second part of the book. Subsequent challenges in the courts are also reviewed, including some cases decided by the Supreme Court at the end of its 1996-97 term.

The focal point throughout is the impact of populist opinion, as well as that of special-interest groups, upon elected representatives in the formation of public policy. The role of one of the most politically potent of all lobbies, the National Rifle Association, is assessed in the context of the competition it faces from an increasingly activist gun control movement. The book concludes by asking whether an end is in sight regarding America's isolated tolerance of lethal weapons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195115307
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/23/1998
Series:	Studies in Crime and Public Policy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lord Windlesham is Principal of Brasenose College at Oxford University and national President of Victim Support in the United Kingdom. He was Chairman of the Parole Board for England and Wales in the 1980s, and before that served in government as a Minister at the Home Office and the Northern Ireland Office. Among other books, his published work includes the three-volume Responses to Crime (Oxford University Press, 1987-96). Lord Windlesham was the Weinberg/Goldman Sachs Visiting Professor at Princeton University in 1997.

What People are Saying About This

Stanley N. Katz

'This book brilliantly lays out the dynamics of the dilemmas of punishing crime in the States, and sorts through the impact of politics in the way that only the wisest and most knowledgeable of foreigners can do. The punishment of crime in America has found its Tocqueville." -- Princeton University

Editorial Reviews

"[Politics, Punishment and Populism] shows a grasp of the political and legal dynamics of another country which has astonished even Americans and his care for detail adds to its interest."—New Law Journal

"Windlesham offers what is arguably the most coherent analysis of the social forces that came together to produce the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994....Highly recommended for public and college libraries."—Choice

"Lord Windlesham's Politics, Punishment, and Populism is a very important book by a quite extraordinary man. He has been a public servant, public intellectual, and academic. He is a major figure in the debate about the punishment of crime in the United Kingdom. And yet he has become one of the wisest and best-informed students of criminal punishment in the United States. This book brilliantly lays out the dynamics of the dilemmas of punishing crime in the States, and sorts through the impact of politics in the way that only the wisest and most knowledgeable of foreigners can do. The punishment of crime in America has found its Tocqueville."—Professor Stanley N. Katz, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

"This is an important book about the politics and substance of the national government's role in criminal justice in the United States. Lord Windlesham has written the definitive history of our watershed 1994 federal crime control legislation. His account combines the literary style of first-rate journalism with the reliability of first-rate scholarship."—Franklin E. Zimring, William G. Simon Professor of Law and Director of the Earl Warren Legal Institute, University of California at Berkeley

"Windlesham is able to offer a detailed account of the various forces working for, and against, criminal justice legislation. It is well researched, authoritative, and well written...it is very thought provoking, and raises many questions not only about the making of federal criminal justice legislation, but also the impact of federal laws on crime in the United States."—The Law and Politics Book Review

From the Publisher