Focus On the Victim, Essay Example

According to the crime control perspective, the focus of justice should be on the victim, not the criminal so that innocent people can be protected from the ravages of crime. This objective can be achieved through more effective police protection, tough sentences (including liberal use of the death penalty), and the construction of prisons designed to safely incapacitate hardened criminals. If punishment was both certain and severe, few would be tempted to break the law.

Advocates of the crime control perspective also question the criminal justice system’s ability to rehabilitate offenders. Most treatment programs are ineffective because the justice system is simply not equipped to treat people who have a long history of antisocial behavior. Even when agents of the system attempt to prevent crime by working with young people the results are unsatisfactory. For example, evaluations of the highly touted Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) anti-drug program indicate that it has little impact on students. From both a moral and a practical standpoint, the role of criminal justice should be the control of antisocial people. If not to the justice system, then to whom can the average citizen turn for protection from society’s criminal elements?