ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the alternative directions by addressing various conventions in the prescription of punishment. Policy recommendations in criminal justice are driven by the goal of reducing crime and perfecting various techniques for achieving that goal. Research and policy proposals pass through the punishment literature with a high degree of frequency. The chapter proposes a means for expanding the measurement of the scope and severity of penal activity. It considers the evaluation of punishment and the problem of distance in the academic community. The dominant rhetoric associated with punishment justifications can be boiled down to a simple dualism: what is deserved and what is effective. From 1986 to 2006, the National Judicial Reporting Program collected felony sentencing data from a nationally representative stratified sample of state courts in 300 counties. One essential starting point to understanding severity and community is the prior literature on offender perceptions of sanctions.
