Panel:
Responding to Crime from Three Perspectives: Victim, Alleged Perpetrator, and Institution
(Crime and Drugs)
Friday, November 3, 2017: 10:15 AM-11:45 AM
Stetson D (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Panel Organizers: Kerri Raissian, Syracuse University
Panel Chairs: Philip Cook, Duke University
Discussants: Matthew B. Ross, The Ohio State University
When a crime occurs, it is important that justice for all parties involved is achieved and that future crime is deterred. However, creating policies that achieve this goal is difficult due to competing interests, the costs associated with effective intervention, and the unpredictable nature of human response. This panel will highlight three responses to crimes and highlight the difficulty agencies have in balancing the needs of those involved. The first paper by Owens et al. seeks to highlight how those charged with crimes might experience the criminal justice system differently, and it highlights how race and previous interactions with the system drive these differential experiences. The second paper by Raissian shows that pro-arrest laws, which are often motivated by a desire to help victims, may not actually help victims, and that really, the effect is largely unknown. The final paper by Marcotte et al. demonstrates that crimes, specifically sexual violence, may have effects beyond the victim and the alleged perpetrator and extend to the institution. Indeed the public perception of how sexual violence effects alumni giving to colleges could easily be extended to thinking about how increases in crime effect desirability of neighborhoods and other environments. Discussions around crime policy tend to focus on one party: the victim or alleged perpetrator. However, given the complexity and intimate nature of crime, these discussions might be more effective if they were more holistic. We hope that by bringing a set of papers that looks at crime policy relating to victim, alleged perpetrator, and environment in which the crime occurs, we can advance our discussions about this serious social issue. In addition to a broad set of papers, the panel seeks to bring enhance the discussion by having diverse discussants. Becky Pettit, a sociologist, and JJ Prescott, a legal scholar, will serve as discussants for this panel.
