Looks at the U.S.’s efforts to fight effectively in the war on drugs, with emphasis on Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s plan.
This paper discusses the changes in the criminal justice system that have taken place since WWII and looks at how these changes have led to a lessening of the deterrence effect of law enforcement. The paper then looks at the New York drug laws passed by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1973 and argues that these laws, as well as the war on drugs, have been good for America.
“The concept behind sentencing and criminal justice has become murky over the past half century in our country. In the years immediately after the Great War, juvenile crime theory changed from the idea of punishment of a person guilty of committing a violent crime to that of rescuing a victim of a harsh and oppressive urban environment. This shift in legal sentiment also affected the public’s attitudes toward committing crime, and the problem of crime has been rising in urban centers ever since.”