Throughout the western world public opinion has played an important role in shaping criminal justice policy. At the same time opinion polls repeatedly demonstrate that the public knows little about crime and justice, and holds negative views of the criminal justice system. This book, consisting of chapters from leading authorities in the field, is concerned to address this problem, and draws upon research in a number of different countries to address the issues arising from this state of affairs. Its main aims are: to explore the changing and evolving nature of public attitudes to sentencing to examine the factors that influence public opinion and to bring together recent international research which has demonstrated ways in which public attitudes can be changed to propose specific strategies to respond to the crisis in public confidence in criminal justice.

Throughout the western world public opinion has played an important role in shaping criminal justice policy. At the same time opinion polls repeatedly demonstrate that the public knows little about crime and justice, and holds negative views of the crimin.

Explains how attitudes toward both crime and punishment have changed throughout the twentieth century, discussing organized crime, political crimes, policing, the judicial system, punishment and prison, and the internationalization of crime.

This book explores the pros and cons of the death penalty and the history of capital punishment. In this context, it puts a special emphasis on the situation in Hungary, where, amongst its neighbors, in recent years the demand for the reestablishment of the death penalty has received the strongest political support from many pro-government politicians. Toth presents tendencies toward abolition of the death penalty and analyzes the arguments by which the death penalty can, in principle, be criticized or even defended. The book presents the main issues of the death penalty, arguments of both abolitionists and retentionists, and reviews the modern history of this sanction. It does not seek to convince the reader of the correctness or wrongness of the death penalty, but it presents both sides of the argument and their standpoints, and leaves the reader to decide. It encourages informed debate and discussion.