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- Title
Federal crime legislation through the eyes of Alexis de Tocquiville.
- Authors
Levine, James P.
- Abstract
This article focuses on the views of French political commentator Alexis de Tocqueville about the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill in the United States. The passage of the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill by Congress represents a puzzling and disturbing paradox. Crime experts of varying intellectual and ideological persuasions are by and large united in doubting the efficacy of these federal anti-crime policies which have been so ballyhooed by the politicians who supported them. The truth is that members of Congress either did not know about the folly of their ways or did not care. Hearings galore were held not only in regard to the 1994 bill but in the previous years which failed to produce major crime legislation. A chorus of agitated voices spoke out: political activists from the gun lobby to the American Civil Liberties Union, crime victims who told heart-wrenching stories of their suffering, and criminal justice officials giving rather pat opinions largely based on personal impressions. The ameliorating factor that lessens concerns about the transmission of misguided majority sentiment into policy is the paucity of such popularly held views; majorities are hard to come by.
- Subjects
UNITED States; CRIMINAL law; FEDERAL crimes; PLURALISM; POLITICAL action committees; LEGISLATIVE bills; ACTIVISTS; SOCIAL movements
- Publication
Crime, Law & Social Change, 1995, Vol 23, Issue 3, p175
- ISSN
0925-4994
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/BF01301635