ABSTRACT
This chapter began with an examination of published data on the wide variations in the use of prison in different jurisdictions. It presents a simple fact that a country’s criminal justice policy and its economic policy go together and examines some political indices. In Punishment, Crime and Market Forces pointed out that, analogous with Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, simplified statements, descriptions, or models have limits beyond which any further reduction of complexity results in unacceptable distortion. The identification of “extremism” provides an explanation of many problems. Psychologists have explored the area and proposed different definitions for values, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes. Opinions and beliefs express assumptions about the world. Opinion research has established that moral values are held in “packages.” Opinions on abortion, the death penalty, crime, and punishment were particularly characterized by the quality of subjective certainty.
