Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgments; 1 Introduction and Overview: Crime in the Public Eye; Public Concern About Crime; Prime-Time Crime; Public Opinion and Criminal Justice Policy-Making; Going Beyond the Results of Polls; Plan of the Book; Crime Control Versus Due Process Models of Justice; Consensus Versus Conflict; Information Processing by the Public; Research Methodologies; Conclusions; Notes; 2 Public Knowledge of Crime: Myths and Realities; Crime Rates and Patterns; Criminal Recidivism Rates; Conclusions; Notes
3 Legal Reforms and Criminal Justice Statistics: What Does the Public Really Know?Knowledge of the Law and Legal Rights; Knowledge of the Sentencing Process; Conclusions; Notes; 4 Crime Seriousness; Seriousness of Crime as a Social Problem; Perceptions of the Relative Seriousness of Different Crimes; Conclusions; Notes; 5 Beyond Public Responses: The Hidden Effects of Context, Recall, and Stereotypes; Context; Time Pressure and Answers to General Questions; The Public as Pragmatic Decisionmaker; People as Creative Storymakers; Conclusions; Notes; 6 Origins of Crime and Crime Prevention
Beliefs About Why Crimes Are CommittedSchemata of Criminal Events; Stereotypes of Offenders; Crime Prevention; Conclusions; Notes; 7 Evaluating the Police and the Courts; Confidence Across Institutions and Clarification of Diffuse Support; Evaluations of the Procedural Fairness of Courts; Evaluations of Procedural Fairness: The Role of Direct Experience; Relation Between Encounters with Authorities and Diffuse Support; Conclusions; Notes; 8 Legislative Definitions of Crimes and Law Enforcement Priorities; Public Definitions of Crimes and Defenses to Crimes; Evaluations of Police Competence
ConclusionsNotes; 9 The Adversarial System and the Institution of the Jury; Desired Procedures to Resolve Disputes and Their Accuracy; Fairness and Accuracy of Jury Verdicts; Conclusions; Notes; 10 Sentencing and Parole; Public Interest in Sentencing; The Purposes of Sentencing and Imprisonment; Proportionality in Public Views of Sentencing; Criminal Record and the Sentencing Process; Attitudes Toward Sentencing Severity; Relative Punitiveness of the Public and the Courts; Attitudes Toward Parole; General Versus Specific Measures of Public Opinion; Conclusions; Notes; 11 The Death Penalty
Power of the Death Penalty as Cruel and Unusual PunishmentPower of Instrumental Arguments to Change Death Penalty Attitudes; Conclusions; Notes; 12 Privacy and Free Speech; Public Versus Judicial View of Privacy; Community Standards and Judgments of Obscene Materials; Conclusions; Notes; 13 Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice; Knowledge of Juvenile Justice Trends; Sentencing Juvenile Offenders; Conclusions; Notes; 14 Gun Control; Possession and Ownership of Guns; Views About Gun Control Laws; Conclusions; Notes; 15 Drawing Conclusions; Educating the Public; Researching Public Opinion
