Beyond the Punitive Public: Governance and Public Opinion on Penal Policy.

Public opinion studies assume that Americans' desire to punish underlies support for penal policies that drive our skyrocketing imprisonment rate; however sociologists of punishment theorize that the relationship between citizens and government influences the character and appeal of criminal justice legislation. Jonathan Simon's "governing through crime" theory explains how this relationship might work. The current study links Simon's theory to public opinion by using ideas about legal consciousness to conceptualize a "governing-through-crime mentality." I test the relationship between this mentality and support for mandatory sentencing with data from a national telephone survey. Results suggest that while the punitive public exists, wanting to separate offenders from society, and distrusting the courts increases the likelihood of support for mandatory sentencing. This demonstrates the importance of accounting for attitudes about governance when studying public opinion. If ideas about citizenship and government influence support for crime policy, then curbing policies that increase the prison population requires a fundamental shift in the values underlying our democracy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]