Criminal Negligence The depoliticization of crime

By Elizabeth Hull

emember “crime”? Not so long did so almost as an ago Republican presidential afterthought. R candidates routinely pum- meled their opponents by challenging he failure to their “” credentials. In stress “law- 1964 Barry Goldwater campaigned Tand-order” against “crime in the streets,” and four themes makes sense, years later, in the wake of urban riots certainly, because and the mayhem that accompanied polls taken during the

the Democratic National Convention, last year indicate that ©2000www.arttoday.com Richard Nixon won the presidency in voters were preoccu- part by promising an end to “lawless- pied with issues other than crime. In events, including the well-publicized ness.” preached a “no- past presidential elections, however, can- of 12-year-old Polly Klaas and nonsense” stand on crime and waged didates often trumpeted “get tough” the so-called “Long Island Rail Road an aggressive “war” on drugs. More positions even when polls suggested rela- massacre,” in which an aggrieved gun- recently, in 1988, GOP presidential tive voter indifference. For instance, man killed several passengers.) contender George Bush was able to Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, overcome ’s Ronald Reagan, and even George Bush In four national polls taken in the fall frontrunner status once he succeeded accused their opponents of “coddling of 1994, crime continued to top the in tarring his rival as “soft on crime.” criminals” to good effect, notwithstand- list of MIPs, with either 42 or 50% of ing the fact that Gallup polls conducted those interviewed, depending upon the Yet in the 2000 presidential election at the time never ranked crime as the survey, citing crime as the nation’s top both major candidates rarely men- MIP—Most Important Problem (a dis- problem. By January 1995 the propor- tioned crime. Twelve years after his tinction invariably awarded to economic tion had fallen to 31%—still a signifi- father trumped Dukakis, and six years issues, such as unemployment, taxes, or cant number, and one high enough to after he himself captured the Texas inflation). According to the late Jeff edge out traditional concerns—and in governorship from popular incumbent Alderman, then director of polling for 1996 a Washington Post survey ranked Ann Richards, in part by accusing her ABC News, “Until Fall 1993 no ABC/ crime second among the voters’ top of being lax on crime, George W. Bush Washington Post poll had ever shown twenty worries. In a mid-1997 Time/ delivered an acceptance speech at the more than 5% of the public naming CNN poll 14% of respondents cited Republican National Convention in crime as the most important problem crime as the main problem facing the which he failed even to mention the facing the country.” nation today, tying it with lack of moral “C” word. And while did refer values, and putting it just ahead of to crime in his acceptance speech at the n 1993, however, even as crime budget deficits, with 10%. Democratic National Convention, he rates began falling, between 9 and I10% of poll respondents identified et, surprisingly, in neither the crime as the nation’s MIP. Then, a 1996 nor 2000 election did any scant year later, 37% gave it top rank- Yof the major candidates stress Elizabeth Hull is associate professor of ing. (Criminologist Mark Warr at- law and order issues. An obvious ex- political science, Rutgers University. tributes this leap to a confluence of planation, of course, is that crime rates

20 Public Perspective, March/April 2001 were dramatically down. After reach- record time Dukakis’s 17-point lead ers in compassionate, rather than puni- ing an unprecedented high in 1991, vanished, and Bush handily won the tive, terms. Speaking before the Demo- crime fell every year since, dropping 1988 election. cratic Leadership Council shortly after 4% in 1997 and 5% in 1998. These the Los Angeles uprising, for instance, drops were relatively small, however, he characterized looters as people whose compared to 1999, when the Depart- “lives and bonds to the larger commu- ment of Justice reported in its annual “Crime no longer nity had been shredded by the hard Crime Victimization Report that crime knife of experience.” He also criticized had plummeted another 10%. In 1999, fulfilled its the Reagan-Bush administrations for 7.3 million people—about 33 out of blaming the crime problem on every 1000 US residents—suffered a traditional role as a “them”—impoverished people of color. violent attack. That represents a de- cline of 34% since 1993, to the lowest ‘wedge’ issue with hese sentiments, however, were level since the report began in 1973. which Republicans countered by the harsh poli- Tcies Clinton pursued. As a There is, however, another reason “crime” candidate he had advocated boot camp was relatively ignored in both the 1996 could bludgeon for juvenile offenders, “more police on and 2000 presidential elections: it no Democrats.” the streets and criminals behind bars,” longer fulfilled its traditional role as a and greater reliance on the death pen- “wedge” issue with which Republicans alty. As president he signed the 1994 could bludgeon Democrats. Violent Crime Control Act and the s the Democratic candidate for 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective or candidate Bill Clinton, and president in 1992, Clinton re- Death Penalty Act, which together indeed a whole generation of A solved at all costs to avoid his awarded federal funds to any state that F“New Democrats,” the transfor- predecessor’s fate. He would be as adopted “binding sentencing guide- mative event in their political careers unapologetically tough on crime as any line systems,” and he agreed to man- may well have been the “Willie Horton” potential Republican rival. To empha- date life sentences for some three-time phenomenon. During Michael size that point, he interrupted his cam- offenders. The new statutes autho- Dukakis’s tenure as governor of Mas- paigning to fly home to Arkansas to rized 8.8 billion dollars for 57,000 sachusetts, state prison officials granted attend the execution of Ricky Rae Rec- local police officers, 7.9 billion in state convicted murderer Willie Horton a tor, a convict so brain-damaged that he prison grants, and made 54 additional weekend furlough, during which he told his jailers, just hours before his offenses eligible for the death penalty. raped a woman. Although lethal injection, that he intended to Dukakis had nothing to do with the vote for Clinton in the upcoming elec- Other provisions were not only puni- furlough policy—indeed, it had been tion. According to a former prosecutor, tive, but gratuitously so: one restricted instituted during the tenure of his GOP quoted by Washington Post columnist the scope of court-ordered settlements predecessor—pollsters for Republican Peter Slevin, if Clinton could kill Rec- in lawsuits challenging prison condi- presidential candidate George Bush tor, “he can kill anyone.” Yet, the tions; others allowed some 13-year- learned through focus groups that link- prosecutor acknowledged, by doing so olds to be tried as adults, expanded the ing the governor with Clinton made sure that Bush would not circumstances in which federal pros- Horton would resonate powerfully with be able to taunt him the way he mocked ecutors could use illegally-obtained the electorate. Images of Horton, de- Dukakis, “as a patsy for every dark- evidence, and restricted prisoners’ right picted as a huge and menacing black skinned murderer in Massachusetts.” to file habeas corpus suits. Some mea- man, soon began appearing on televi- sures were as petty as they were puni- sion screens, along with ominous mes- Democratic candidate Clinton still tive, such as the one mandating the sages suggesting that Dukakis was “a needed to appeal to his party’s tradi- deportation of resident aliens for even liberal softie,” whose feckless policies tional constituency, however, and con- minor offenses they might have com- endangered the law-abiding at the same sequently did not entirely jettison lib- mitted years or even decades earlier, or time they indulged the rapists and mur- eral principles: in 1992 he stressed the the one limiting inmates’ access to Pell derers. “The code words were ‘permis- need for drug prevention and treatment grants, with which they could pursue a siveness’ and ‘lawlessness,’” recalls programs, and he urged the slowing of college education. Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew prison construction. As criminology Research Center. The strategy, with professor Katherine Beckett observed, In May 1995, the Federal Sentencing its not-so-subliminal appeal to , before and after his victory in 1992 he Commission recommended that Con- proved astonishingly effective: in occasionally even referred to law-break- gress abandon provisions of the Anti-

Public Perspective, March/April 2001 21 Drug Abuse Act that imposed substan- dency. Accordingly, even as crime rates sure, but not the same one who ran in tially harsher penalties on crack offend- began falling DLC members began sup- 1996; “this one [was] a religious activ- ers—who are disproportionately Afri- porting muscular “anti-crime” policies. ist.” Those likely to succeed tended to can American—than on anyone else As GOP strategist Ed Rogers observed, be, like the Democrats, Third who violates drug laws. Shortly after the “the Democrats got tired of letting us Wayers—“free trade and globalists, Million Man March, at which Jesse beat them with that club.” foreign-policy activists, defense hawks, Jackson and others condemned crack and people who believe in practical sentencing laws for being unjust and When Clinton ran for the presidency compassion or conservative idealism.” racist, Congress voted to ignore the in 1992, and again in 1996, his so- Sentencing Commission’s recommen- called “triangulation” campaigns y their firm adherence to “Third dations and uphold the existing policy. clearly bore the DLC’s imprint. Like Way” principles, both Gore and President Clinton lost no time endors- other “New Democrats” running at BBush muted their differences ing its action. the same time, he promoted measures on the two issues most closely related in addition to crime—particularly re- to crime-in-the-streets themes: gun olumnist Peter Slevin observed lating to taxes and welfare—that were control and capital punishment. As a that the 1994 Violent Crime indistinguishable from ones tradition- result of their pusillanimity, the elec- CControl Act represented a vic- ally advocated by the Republicans. As torate was denied the education that tory for the Democrats by enabling a result, observed conservative strate- substantive debate could have provided, them “to wrest the crime issue from gist Don Devine, “Bill Clinton has and robbed of any meaningful policy the Republicans and make it their own.” moved the Democratic Party dramati- options from which to choose. According to this logic, by signing the cally to the right.” When that hap- draconian Anti-Terrorism Act and de- pens, he added, “it makes it harder for In principle, the two candidates en- fying the Sentencing Commission, the other party, which calls itself the dorsed substantially different policies Clinton secured a substantial payoff conservative party, to say what it repre- on gun control. As the campaign pro- both for himself and his party: in 1996 sents.... Now it’s hard for us to say how gressed, however, they began he was endorsed by the national Fra- we are different from them.” downplaying their differences, lest they ternal Order of Police—a powerful alienate prospective supporters. Poll- union that rarely aligned itself with Al From, President of the DLC, agrees ster Terry Madonna observed, “There Democrats. During his re-election with Devine: “In the nineties, there has is caution on both sides about getting campaign, moreover, many influential been only one successful philosophy for too deeply into this because it cuts figures celebrated his “no-nonsense” electing and governing in advanced both ways.... They will both talk about approach to crime. In one particularly western democracies—the Third Way.” [guns] if asked, but you won’t see guns effective testimonial, Marc Klaas, Just as successful Democrats raided the as a major campaign issue.” In Bush’s whose twelve-year-old daughter had GOP’s arsenal in the last two presiden- case, emphasizing his positions could been kidnapped and murdered in 1993, tial elections, From says, to be success- have bolstered his popularity among applauded Clinton for having forced ful in 2000 the Republicans had to males, but would have jeopardized Congress to pass a tough crime bill “steal our policies”: “They [had] to some female support. Gore, on the “that mandated life in prison for dan- become credible on compassion issues, other hand, knew that while his gun- gerous repeat offenders, and an ex- just as in 1992 we had to become cred- control policies appealed to many panded death penalty.” ible on fiscal discipline, toughness on women, they might alienate voters who crime, and welfare.” feel passionately about gun ownership, lthough Clinton’s “tough-on- in particular union members in the all- crime” agenda was reinforced As the 2000 race illustrated, From says, important “swing” states. During the A by the Willie Horton debacle, to be successful candidates had to sound third debate, in fact, Gore stressed his it had first been adopted years earlier pretty much alike: there was “no left- support for gun owners’ rights. under the influence of the Democratic liberal in the race—no or Leadership Council (DLC), an associa- Paul Wellstone—not even a labor lib- oth Bush and Gore are strong tion of moderate Democrats, primarily eral like Richard Gephardt or Tom proponents of capital punish- from the South, who organized as a Harkin, who ran in 1988 and 1992, Bment. During his five years as counterweight to the minorities, unions, respectively.” Among the Republi- governor of Texas Bush presided over and feminists whose “left-wing” sway cans, there was “no conservative sup- the execution of 143 people—consid- over party policy, its members believed, ply-side libertarian—no Jack Kemp or erably more than any other state since was alienating its core constituents and Phil Gramm or Steve Forbes.” There the Supreme Court reinstated capital preventing it from recapturing the presi- was a Steven Forbes running, to be punishment in 1976. In 1995 he

22 Public Perspective, March/April 2001 signed a state law—the so-called (here differing from Bush, who Neither candidate asked if such out- “speed up the juice” law—that stream- thought such a law was unnecessary lays were cost-effective, or whether lined the appeals process, and he suc- and even mischievous). some percentage of these funds might cessfully militated against a bill that be better spent on education, say, or would have prohibited the execution other social needs. Neither Bush nor of people who are mentally retarded. Gore seemed troubled by the devasta- Critics have charged that of all 38 “Neither candidate so tion wreaked on minority neighbor- states that have a death penalty, Texas hoods when so many of their young is the most unfair—so unfair, in fact, much as whispered men are behind bars, or by the skewed that Amnesty International has ac- priorities adopted by rural communi- cused it of violating international those liberal code ties as they become dependent upon human rights. prison construction and maintenance words ‘root causes,’ for their economic survival. During the third debate between the candidates, a member of the audience or referred to the n apparent thrall to the triangula- questioned Bush about his record on almost quaint- tion politics mastered by Bill capital punishment. Gore could have IClinton, both Gore and Bush ad- seized this opportunity, during his re- vanced crime-related platforms that buttal, to point out that his opponent’s sounding notion represented the triumph of the con- record scarcely illustrated the “compas- servative agenda. Neither candidate sionate conservatism” he claimed to that racism and so much as whispered those liberal embody; but as someone who had him- family disintegration code words “root causes,” or referred self supported capital punishment since to the almost quaint-sounding notion he was first elected to Congress in 1976, and chronic poverty that racism and family disintegration and as a candidate intimately aware of and chronic poverty might contrib- public opinion, he declined to offer even might contribute to ute to lawlessness. a mild criticism of Bush’s performance. lawlessness.” The unrivaled hegemony of the “tough And asked if, as President, he might on crime” discourse, however, may follow the lead of the Republican Gov- have represented less a capitulation to ernor of Illinois, George Ryan, who a harsh-minded public—since studies imposed a moratorium on executions Victims’ rights and internet scams are show that in many circumstances the in his state until reforms could render important issues, of course. But they public is considerably less punitive than the system less error-prone, Gore’s re- pale in magnitude alongside other politicians perceive it to be—than a sponse was immediate and emphatic: crime-related problems that afflict this failure of liberals to articulate and de- No, he would not. country; and never was the need for fend an alternative agenda. Brent thorough debate more urgent than in Staples, writing in , o the extent Gore mentioned the 2000 presidential election. Yet in suggests that the conservative narra- crime at all, he stuck to politi- deference to the public’s apparent pu- tive has prevailed not because the much Tcally safe platitudes similar to— nitiveness, neither candidate even al- ballyhooed “Third Way” policies are and often indistinguishable from— luded to these problems. Imprison- inherently superior or even appropri- ones advocated by Bush: he would ment rates are sky-high: two million ate, but because liberals themselves have fight for a crime victims’ bill of rights, people languish in US prisons—a rate no clear vision of who they are or what including a constitutional amendment six times that of Canada and Australia, they should be seeking to accomplish. to ensure that victims, and not just and five times that of any country in As a consequence they have been un- criminals, are guaranteed protections. the European Union—but neither able to articulate values that resonate He would seek more federal funds to Gore nor Bush questioned the need for with Americans—in contrast to con- hire prosecutors and police officers, or propriety of incarcerating so many servatives, whose law and order rheto- longer sentences for anyone who vic- people. Expenditures for this country’s ric complements the public’s deep- timized the elderly, and tougher pen- “war on drugs” have gone from one seated commitment to individual re- alties for anyone who misused the billion dollars in 1980 to a whopping sponsibility. Until liberals reconnect internet to “prey on our children and 35 billion in 1999, at the same time the with their time-honored values, the violate our privacy.” He also wanted amount spent on law enforcement, in conservatives will continue winning— a national law against hate crimes general, topped 93 billion dollars. if only by default.

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