An Integrative Conflict Model of the Criminal Law Formation Process

Abstract

This article reviews traditional theoretical debates on the criminal law formation process and then presents an integrative, theoretical model of this process. This model suggests that an understanding of the origins of crime and justice legislation must operate on three analytical levels. These levels focus attention on the structural foundations, the actual and perceived experience of crime in a social system, and the immediate triggering events of crime and justice legislation.

Institutional theory and the stability of a conflict model of the incarceration rate

“…Our ability to explain the variation in incarceration rates across the states was greater for 1980 and 1988 than for 1971. In the later periods, of course, structural changes in the economy (Harrison and Bluestone, 1988;Kasarda 1989;Wilson 1987) were coupled with rising concerns about crime, and correctional policy was governed increasingly by goals of retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence (Currie 1985;McGarrell and Castellano 1991;Scheingold 1984). Although these findings should be taken only as preliminary evidence, they seem to justify continued efforts to build on Hagan's insights about loose and tight coupling and about the effects of shifts in political power on the operations of the criminal justice system.…”

“…Since 1970, however, crime control policy, and correctional policy in particular, have experienced a crisis of legitimacy (Cullen and Gilbert 1982;Currie 1985;McGarrell and Castellano 1991;Scheingold 1984). This crisis has been fueled both by social structural dislocations due to macro economic shifts and by loss of confidence in the ability of the criminal justice system to respond effectively to crime.…”

“…The model is most akin to a conflict approach to criminal justice (McGarrell and Castellano 1991), with this important qualification: in keeping with institutional theory, social structural characteristics such as race and inequality are viewed as operating in conjunction with rational-legal factors rather than to the exclusion of those factors. The model includes a number of political, economic, and legal variables that have both direct and indirect effects.…”

“…Social structures characterized by economic inequality and racial heterogeneity are hypothesized to influence the incarceration rate both indirectly and directly (McGarrell and Castellano 1991). Indirectly, racial heterogeneity and inequality are posited to have an effect on the incidence of interpersonal and intergroup conflict, thus generating higher crime McGARREI~ 13 rates ( Baron and Straus 1988;Bralthwaite 1979;Krohn 1976;Messner 1982;Sampson 1987;Wilson 1987).…”

Surviving Hegemony Through Resistance and Identity Articulation Among Outreaching Social Workers

“…Conflict A broader and more abstract discursive frame that underpinned the incompatibility specialization discourses was the conflict discourse, derived from the conflict perspective (McGarrell and Castellano 1991). Accordingly, sectors in society are in conflict and unlikely to come to a consensus.…”