Citation

Durham AM. J. Crim. Justice 1993; 21(1): 1-11.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0047-2352(93)90002-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Efforts to identify public attitudes toward various crime and justice-related issues have become increasingly frequent as the technology and methodology to support such initiatives have become more sophisticated. In addition, both the public opinion polling and social scientific communities have become more energetic in arguing that the results of such efforts ought to have some bearing on the development of public policy. Moreover, social analysts have become interested in a number of theoretical relationships between citizen sentiment and public policy. Underlying the research on public sentiment is the assumption that the public is in possession of a discrete and discernible body of sentiment that can be accessed through the survey techniques currently available. This article calls this assumption into question. Through an examination of the survey methodology used to identify public sentiment regarding judgments of punishment for crime it is argued that faith in the existence of public opinion regarding policy-related issues in crime and justice may be premature.