The Ideal Crime Control Model, Essay Example

What would life be like in a society in which the crime control model held sway? Under the crime control model, the primary concern would be the immediate protection of society. Order would be maintained and people kept under close control. It would be permissible to monitor their whereabouts and keep them under surveillance even though they were merely suspected of crime and had not yet committed an illegal act.

In this model society, individuals are presumed guilty until proven innocent, and concern is with forcing conformity through obedience to the law.  Crime deterrence (which we will discuss next week in more detail) serves as the philosophic underpinnings of this model.  The government rules through fear and intimidation, and the courts generally defer to the wishes of the law enforcement community.  Law enforcement officials have large grants of discretionary powers and few–if any–restrictions placed upon their ability to collect evidence or make arrests.  They adhere to an aggressive, authoritarian enforcement philosophy.  There are large numbers of law enforcement officers, and all law enforcement agencies are centrally organized as a national police force in a tight, closed bureaucratic structure.  The justice process is quick and generally informal.  Once guilt has been determined, punishment is meted out with swiftness, certainty with severity.  The crime control model promotes punishment rather than treatment.  There is frequent use of the death penalty, as well as frequent mandatory commitments of individuals to large, dehumanizing prisons, authorization of electronic surveillance, elimination of bail and adherence to a preventive detention perspective.  There is no place under this model for diversion programs, rehabilitation programs, probation, or parole. There will be some innocent persons punished, and some guilty person will be punished more severely than their behavior warrants.  But on the other hand, fewer guilty persons will escape punishment, and the number of guilty persons punished less severely than they should be will diminish.