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The Topography Of Criminal Justice: A Factor Analysis Of The "Get-Tough" Policy Trend

City College of New York

This article explores the underlying dimensions of the recent "get-tough" movement in criminal justice. It reports on a multi-variate factor analysis of policy indicators among state jurisdictions in the United States. With 32 variables for 51 observations, two noteworthy factors emerged. While both factors indicated general "toughness, " they revealed two distinct policy approaches : The first factor appears to reflect the tendency of some states toward comprehensive custody of many kinds (prison, probation, juvenile detention), while the second factor seems to reflect other states' reliance on punitive symbols (long sentences, the death penalty). These results raise questions about the future of criminal justice policy and suggest the use of the resulting factor scores as dependent variables for subsequent research on the sources of get-tough policies.

Criminal Justice Policy Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, 184-207 (1989)
DOI: 10.1177/088740348900300205


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