Public attitudes toward crime and criminal justice-related topics
Results of public opinion polls on criminal justice-related issues results are presented in this section. Perceptions of problems in schools; ratings of the police and courts; fear of crime; and attitudes toward the death penalty, firearms laws, marijuana legalization, doctor-assisted suicide are some of the topics covered.
View entire Section 2 from Sourcebook 2003 print edition in Acrobat format (287 k) | Tables in Section 2
Topics in Section 2
Capital punishment
- Applied to select groups
- Attitudes, general
- Deterrent
- Fairness
- Penalty for murder
- Reasons favoring or opposing
- Student attitudes
Crime
- Approaches to lowering the crime rate
- Fear
- Level of spending for the problems of crime and drugs
- Perceptions of crime and safety in U.S. and neighborhoods
- Progress coping with drugs
- Responses to concern about crime
- Student attitudes
Courts
- Death penalty
- Judges, honesty and ethics
- Penalty for murder
- Severity of local courts
- Student attitudes
- Treatment of juveniles who commit violent crime
- U.S. Supreme Court
Drugs
- Availability
- Disapproval
- Legalization of marijuana
- Level of spending on drug addiction
- Perceptions of the harmfulness of drug and alcohol use
- Progress coping with drug problem
- Severity of drug problem
Guns
- Gun control policies
- Ownership
- Right to own
- Safety in the home
- Student attitudes
Police
Honesty and ethics- Increased law enforcement powers
- Performance and fairness
- Public confidence
- Racial profiling
- Student attitudes
- Use of force, brutality
Public confidence
- Criminal justice system
- Government protecting citizens from terrorism
- Institutions
- Police
- U.S. Supreme Court
Students
College freshmen
- Legalization of marijuana
- Abortion
- The courts
- Capital punishment
- Homosexual relations
- Gun control
- Disapproving of drug use
High school seniors
- Legalization of marijuana
- Performance of selected institutions
- Performance of the courts and justice system
- Performance of the police
- Social problems
- Perceptions of availability of drugs
Schools
- Drug testing and locker searches
- Problems and fear in schools
Social and other issues
- Abortion
- Doctor-assisted suicide
- Drinking age, underage drinking laws
- Environment
- Ethics of various occupations, lawyers, police, and judges
- Fairness of criminal justice system
- Homosexual relations
- Important problems for country, government, and teenagers
- Pornography
- Rehabilitation
Terrorism
- Government's ability to reduce threat, protect citizens
- Civil liberties
- Fear
- Torture