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NCJRS Abstract

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NCJ Number:	89483

Title:	Implementing Determinate Sentencing in Illinois - Conscience and Convenience

Journal:	Criminal Justice Review Volume:8 Issue:1 Dated:(Spring 1983) Pages:1-16

Author(s):	F T Cullen; K E Gilbert; J B Cullen

Date Published:	1983

Page Count:	16

Format:	Article

Language:	English

Country:	United States of America

Annotation:	The assertion that criminal justice reform movements fail because the ideological model underlying the reform ('conscience') is corrupted by the politics and pragmatics in the system ('convenience') is applied to the implementation of determinate sentencing in Illinois.

Abstract:	The study surveyed the general public and criminal justice participants in Illinois to measure the conscience prevailing in the State during sentencing reform. Results suggest that the specifics of the determinate sentencing law implemented in Illinois did not represent a corruption of conscience. Instead, it appears that the law, while shaped by the structure of interests in the State, also largely conformed to existing attitudes regarding criminal sanctioning. Further, the combination of conscience and convenience dictated that neither a conservative nor a liberal model of determinate sentencing would be fully instituted. In effect, a piecemeal reform was passed which promised to get tough on crime but whose unanticipated consequences may prove troubling. Data tables, notes, and about 80 references are supplied. (Author abstract modified)

Index Term(s):	Criminal justice system reform; Determinate Sentencing; Illinois; Political influences; Public Attitudes/Opinion

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