As the U.S. moves closer to withdrawing from its second war in the last decade, the time is ripe to consider whether and how the U.S. will withdraw from the War on Crime that it has waged off and on since the mid-seventies. During this period of time the prison population exploded, criminal law, criminal procedure and sentencing law changed dramatically, and society became used to the idea of seeing crime and punishment in terms of a war that we wage against ourselves. More recently, crime rates have leveled off or dropped, moral panics about crime have lost much of their potency, and some reforms have begun. Even as a consensus for a fundamental change in our approach to punishment builds, however, the U.S. seems largely stuck with a historically high level of incarceration and a way of thinking about punishment that is fundamentally warlike, punitive and divisive. This panel will explore how the War against Crime might end, both in terms of specific policy proposals and in terms of new ways of thinking about criminal law, criminal procedure and criminal punishment in American society.
Business Meeting at Program Conclusion.