Democracy, Crime, and Justice

By SUSANNE KARSTEDT and GARY LaFREE The connection between democracy and criminal justice is so fun a ental as to be self-evident: the rule of law guarantees due process, and the observation of human rights is an integral part of the emergence and institu tionalization of democracy. Indeed, most mea sures of the strength of democracy include an index of criminal justice and due process guar antees. By contrast, the connection between democracy and crime is less obvious and has only recently begun to attract the attention of scholars from different disciplines, notably political scientists. However, the focus of polit ical science has been less on crime than on