Crime, Punishment, and the Decline of Liberal Optimism

Postwar American liberalism was an optimistic ideology assuming the possibility of resolving the problems of the social order within the context of capitalism. That optimism has now been shattered, with liberals exhibittng great pessimism about the possibility of fashioning policy that can meet the challenge of the times. In this essay, this transformation is traced through an analysis of the shifting perspective of liberalism on crime and punishment. A review of the journals of liberal opinion be tween 1945 and 1975 reveals a growing recognition of the seriousness of urban crime and a profound shift from the rehabilitative ideology to a more punitive response to criminals. The distinction between conservative social thought and the liberal critique of that outlook has thus begun to vanish.