The 1996 National Opinion Survey on Crime and Justice explored citizens' attitudes about community corrections programs. To place the survey findings in context, it is important to note three primary dimensions of Americans' attitudes about crime and criminal justice: fear of crime; exasperation with and loss of confidence in the official criminal justice system; and changing attributions about criminals, who are not regarded as products of poor social settings or unfortunate victims, but as more volitional and willful actors. Despite giving relatively low confidence ratings to the probation system and their perception of leniency in community corrections, survey respondents displayed positive attitudes about the effectiveness of alternatives to incarceration in protecting the public. The alternatives evaluated included working to earn money to repay victims, short-term boot camps, community service, electronic monitoring, house arrest, fines, and weekend jail sentences. Figures, references