“Crime and Punishment Across America: A 50 State Legislative Analysis”
The title of this post is the title of this big new report from the Prosecutors and Politics Project (PPP) at UNC School of Law to share a new national study on state crime and punishment legislation. Here is part of the start of the report:
National Analysis
This report presents the results of a national study of state crime and punishment legislation. We identified every bill introduced in the 50 state legislatures during a four-year period that either changed the scope of criminal law or changed the punishment imposed after conviction. The study captured whether the legislation was punitive (i.e., whether it increased criminal law or punishment), lenient (i.e., whether it decreased criminal law or punishment), or mixed. It also captured the crime or crimes that the legislation addressed (e.g., assault, burglary, etc.), as well as whether the legislation passed.
This original national dataset allows us to present a comprehensive look at crime and punishment legislation in the states during the years 2015 through 2018
Key Takeaways
Legislatures introduced and passed significantly more punitive statutory provisions than lenient ones. Legislation that would have expanded the scope of substantive criminal law or increased punishment was introduced at a rate 3.5 times higher than legislation that would have contracted the scope of substantive criminal law or decreased punishment. Punitive legislation was passed 2.8 times more often than lenient legislation.
Legislation that contained both punitive and lenient measures was most likely to pass. While punitive legislation was introduced at a much higher rate, it had the lowest passage rate. Only 16% of bills that increased criminal law or punishment passed. Mixed bills—that is, bills that both increased criminal law or punishment and also decreased criminal law or punishment—passed at the much higher rate of 31%. The passage rate of bills that decreased criminal law or punishment was 20%.
Significantly more legislative effort was devoted to changing the scope of criminal law, rather than to adjusting punishments. States were more than twice as likely to introduce and pass legislation that increased the scope of criminal law than legislation that increased punishment. The same held true for legislation that decreased the scope of criminal law as compared to legislation that decreased punishment.