"Crime and the American States," in Virginia Gray and Herbert Jacob (eds.) Politics
in the American States. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1997,
Chapter 10.
In this chapter I first describe the crime problems facing the states and explore the factors that differentiate
high-crime from low-crime areas. I also describe some of the main features of state criminal justice
systems and how much they cost. Most of the money is spent by cities. They are responsible for the police,
which absorb the lion’s share of the overall budget for criminal justice. Courts are also a significant expense,
and responsibility for them is shared by municipalities, counties, and the states. The second-largest slice of
the criminal justice budget is devoted to prisons and mails, and the former are the responsibility of state
governments. The focus in most of this chapter is on state policies and practices with regard to filling those
prisons and jails – the kinds of sentences outlines in the states’ criminal codes, the number of prisoners
they hold in custody, the construction and operation of prisons, and how the state have responded to rising
crime rates since the 1960s. In the final section of this chapter I examine how these policies have in turn
created new problems for states and their tax-payers, including massive overcrowding and pressure to build
many new prisons.
in the American States. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1997,
Chapter 10.
In this chapter I first describe the crime problems facing the states and explore the factors that differentiate
high-crime from low-crime areas. I also describe some of the main features of state criminal justice
systems and how much they cost. Most of the money is spent by cities. They are responsible for the police,
which absorb the lion’s share of the overall budget for criminal justice. Courts are also a significant expense,
and responsibility for them is shared by municipalities, counties, and the states. The second-largest slice of
the criminal justice budget is devoted to prisons and mails, and the former are the responsibility of state
governments. The focus in most of this chapter is on state policies and practices with regard to filling those
prisons and jails – the kinds of sentences outlines in the states’ criminal codes, the number of prisoners
they hold in custody, the construction and operation of prisons, and how the state have responded to rising
crime rates since the 1960s. In the final section of this chapter I examine how these policies have in turn
created new problems for states and their tax-payers, including massive overcrowding and pressure to build
many new prisons.
"Traffic and the Courts: Social Change and Organizational Response," in Herbert
Jacob (ed.) The Potential for Reform of Criminal Justice. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Publications, 1975, 131-172.
This essay examines the problems of caseload, volume stress, and organizational response in a particular
legal arena. One of the major challenges to the ability of urban courts to effectively carry out their task has
been the automobile. A most immediate social cost of the automobile, and one which produces legal
problems which threaten to overwhelm local civil courts, is the personal and property carnage its use
creates. Casualties on American highways outnumber those of all our wars. During both the Korean and
Vietnam conflicts highway deaths on the domestic front outran those on the battlefield. By 1970, even minor
automobile damage and the cost in entailed led to a political dispute of considerable magnitude over the
cost and operation of automobile insurance schemes. At the same time, personal injury cases accumulating
in the courts had created a serious backlog problem. In Chicago, delay averages three to five years, and no
decrease is in sight. I then examine the regulatory response of the legal system. Regulation of the ownership
and use of the automobile challenges the ability of the city to keep order. Controlling the flow of motor
vehicles through the city demands the attention of numerous police officers and an armada of vehicles and
specialized equipment. They enforce a host of formal rules governing the use of automobiles, rules which
were created to facilitate the use of the automobile in the city and control its more undesirable consequences.
Finally, I examine the organizational response of the courts to the volume stress this enforcement effort
created. At one point, traffic offenses made up 75 percent of the business of the municipal court of Chicago.
“Crimes” such as double-parking and speeding, serious social problems in the city, jammed already
overloaded dockets, and the court was hard-pressed to dispose of its business. The eventual response was
the creation of specialized, autonomous branch courts which could process traffic cases with assembly-line
efficiency. The compromises with traditional procedure which this organizational transformation demanded
highlight the difficulty that the legal system has encountered in adjusting to the realities of urban life. Traffic,
like many emerging urban problems, seriously challenges traditional conceptions of criminality, guilt, the
personal responsibility of individuals for their behavior, and the deterrent impact of punishment upon
unlawful behavior. In civil and criminal traffic cases we witness most clearly the clash between often
inappropriate legal models for the settlement of disputes or the “treatment” of offenders and demands for
organizational efficiency. Reflecting this, future reforms will probably focus not upon further increases in
efficiency, but upon the removal of traffic problems from the courts entirely.
Jacob (ed.) The Potential for Reform of Criminal Justice. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Publications, 1975, 131-172.
This essay examines the problems of caseload, volume stress, and organizational response in a particular
legal arena. One of the major challenges to the ability of urban courts to effectively carry out their task has
been the automobile. A most immediate social cost of the automobile, and one which produces legal
problems which threaten to overwhelm local civil courts, is the personal and property carnage its use
creates. Casualties on American highways outnumber those of all our wars. During both the Korean and
Vietnam conflicts highway deaths on the domestic front outran those on the battlefield. By 1970, even minor
automobile damage and the cost in entailed led to a political dispute of considerable magnitude over the
cost and operation of automobile insurance schemes. At the same time, personal injury cases accumulating
in the courts had created a serious backlog problem. In Chicago, delay averages three to five years, and no
decrease is in sight. I then examine the regulatory response of the legal system. Regulation of the ownership
and use of the automobile challenges the ability of the city to keep order. Controlling the flow of motor
vehicles through the city demands the attention of numerous police officers and an armada of vehicles and
specialized equipment. They enforce a host of formal rules governing the use of automobiles, rules which
were created to facilitate the use of the automobile in the city and control its more undesirable consequences.
Finally, I examine the organizational response of the courts to the volume stress this enforcement effort
created. At one point, traffic offenses made up 75 percent of the business of the municipal court of Chicago.
“Crimes” such as double-parking and speeding, serious social problems in the city, jammed already
overloaded dockets, and the court was hard-pressed to dispose of its business. The eventual response was
the creation of specialized, autonomous branch courts which could process traffic cases with assembly-line
efficiency. The compromises with traditional procedure which this organizational transformation demanded
highlight the difficulty that the legal system has encountered in adjusting to the realities of urban life. Traffic,
like many emerging urban problems, seriously challenges traditional conceptions of criminality, guilt, the
personal responsibility of individuals for their behavior, and the deterrent impact of punishment upon
unlawful behavior. In civil and criminal traffic cases we witness most clearly the clash between often
inappropriate legal models for the settlement of disputes or the “treatment” of offenders and demands for
organizational efficiency. Reflecting this, future reforms will probably focus not upon further increases in
efficiency, but upon the removal of traffic problems from the courts entirely.
Crime Trends
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