Zero tolerance

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Zero tolerance is the concept of compelling persons in positions of authority, who might otherwise exercise their discretion in making subjective judgments regarding the severity of a given offense, to impose a pre-determined punishment regardless of individual culpability or "extenuating circumstances".^{[citation needed]}

Zero tolerance policies are studied in criminology and are common in formal and informal policing systems around the world.^{[citation needed]} The policies also appear in informal situations where there may be sexual harassment or Internet misuse in educational and workplace environments.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 History and etymology 2 Theoretical considerations 3 Areas of application 3.1 Zero tolerance and harassment and bullying in the workplace 3.2 Zero tolerance and narcotics 3.3 Zero tolerance and transportation 3.4 Law enforcement in the United States 4 Criticism 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History and etymology

The concept of "Zero Tolerance" (1994)^[1][2] originates in the 'broken window' theory of crime (1982), of which inherits the same underlying assumptions,^[3][4][5] and which in turn was inspired by the Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Act, approved in New Jersey in 1973.^{[5][6][clarification needed]}

In 1982, conservatives James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, formulated their theory in the article Broken Windows,^[6] published in The Atlantic Monthly. The Atlantic Monthly was not a scientific journal of criminology, which would have applied peer review, but instead a cultural magazine of large circulation.

The title of the article comes from the following example:

“

Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

”

According to scholars, zero tolerance is the concept of giving carte blanche to the police for the inflexible repression of minor offences, homeless people and the disorders associated with them.^[3][4][7] A well known criticism to this approach is that it redefines social problems in terms of security, ^[8] it considers the poor as criminals, and it reduces crimes to only "street crimes", those committed by lower social classes, excluding white-collar crimes.^[9]

On the historical examples of the application of zero tolerance kind of policies, all the scientific studies conclude that it didn't play a leading role in the reduction of crimes, a role which is instead claimed by its advocates.^[9] In New York, the decline of crimes rate started well before Rudy Giuliani came to power, in 1993, and none of the decreasing processes had particular inflection under him.^[9][10] In the same period of time, the decrease in crime was the same in the other major US cities, even those with an opposite security policy; finally, in the years 1984-7 New York already experienced a policy similar to Giuliani's one, but it faced a crime increase instead.^[9]

Two of the best American specialists, Edward Maguire, an Administration of Justice Professor at George Mason University, and John Eck from the University of Cincinnati, rigorously evaluated all the scientific work designed to test the efficiency of the police in the fight against crime. They concluded that "neither the number of policemen engaged in the battle, or internal changes and organizational culture of law enforcement agencies (such as the introduction of community policing) have by themselves impact on the evolution of offenses."^[9][11]

The crime decrease was due not the work of the police and judiciary, but to economic and demographic factors. The main ones were an unprecedented economic growth with jobs for millions of young people, and a shift from the use of crack towards other drugs.^[9][12]

Since the original 1973 program had a positive impact on the citizens, who were left with the false impression it had improved their safety, the program has been described as a public relation policy instead of a safety one.^[5]

[edit] Theoretical considerations

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The conceptual rationale for zero tolerance emerges from a reaction against classical utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham had argued that penalties should be graduated so that the degree of pain threatened by the penal system would act as a deterrent by matching or exceeding the gain that might be derived from the proposed crime.

At the time, capital punishment was a normative penalty. This had arisen because legislators were frustrated that less severe penalties did not seem to deter criminal behavior. Penalties were therefore raised incrementally until even relatively minor thefts were punishable by death. Bentham argued that a combination of additional resources to improve policing and a scaled reduction in penalties would achieve better results.

In modern times, sentencing has become politicized as the Neo-Classical School and Right Realism have argued for a reduction in the discretion allowed to courts to adopt a just deserts approach. Rather, the judges should be constrained to impose more severe penalties in a more mechanical system which pays less regard to the question of individualized justice.

The intention is to use the sentence imposed on every convicted person as a warning to others (see Rational Choice Theory). The news media give maximum coverage to "crime" and the "policies" for its control (see moral panic), and victimology has been included in the general political pressure for law enforcement agencies and the courts to take a firmer line. In parallel, criminologists and government advisers such as James Q. Wilson (see quality of life and Fixing Broken Windows) claim that by changing the physical environment and reducing opportunities to offend, there can be crime prevention through environmental design as a part of Environmental Criminology. An alternative set of strategies is offered by Left Realism.

[edit] Areas of application

The term is also used in the context of driving under the influence of alcohol, referring to a lower illegal blood alcohol content for drivers under the age of 21.^{[citation needed]} In the U.S., the legal limit in all states is now .08%, but for drivers under 21 the prohibited level in most states is .01% or .02%.

[edit] Zero tolerance and harassment and bullying in the workplace

Various institutions have undertaken zero tolerance policies, for example, in the military, in the workplace, and in schools, in an effort to eliminate various kinds of illegal behavior like harassment. Proponents hope that such policies will underscore the commitment of administrators to prevent such behavior. Others raise a concern about this use of zero tolerance policies, a concern which derives from analysis of errors of omission vs errors of commission. Here is the reasoning. Failure to proscribe unacceptable behavior may lead to errors of omission -- too little will be done. But zero tolerance may be seen as a kind of ruthless management, which may lead to a perception of "too much being done". If people fear that their co-workers or fellow students may be fired or terminated or expelled, they may not come forward at all when they see unacceptable behavior. (This is a classic example of Type One/Type Two errors). The Type Two error, where it occurs with respect to zero tolerance, leads to the situation where too stringent a policy may actually reduce reports of illegal behavior. (See Rowe&Bendersky, 2001).

[edit] Zero tolerance and narcotics

In the United States, zero tolerance as a approach against drugs, was originally designed as a part of the War on Drugs under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to curb the transfer of drugs at US borders. Law-enforcement was to target the drug users rather then the transporters or suppliers under the assumptions that harsh sentences and strict enforcement of personal use would reduce demand and therefor strike at root cause of the drug problem. The policy did not require additional laws, instead existing law was enacted with less leniency.^[13] Similar concepts in other countries, such as Sweden,^[14] Italy,^[15] Japan,^[16] China, India and Russia^[17] have since been labeled zero tolerance.

A consistence of zero tolerance is the absolute dichotomy between the legality of any use and no use, equating all illicit drugs and any form of use as undesirable and harmful to society. This is contrasting to viewpoints of those who stress the disparity in harmfulness among drugs, and who would like to distinguish between occasional drug use and problem drug use. Although harm reductionists also see drug use as undesirable, they hold that the resources would do more good if they were to be allocated towards helping problem drug users instead of combating all drug users.^[13][18]

On a more general level, zero tolerance-advocates holds the aim at ridding the society of all illicit drug use and that criminal justice has a important role in that endeavor.^[13] The Swedish parliament for example set the vision a drug-free society as the official goal for the drug policy in 1978. This vision where to prompt new practices inspired by Nils Bejerot, practices later labeled as Zero tolerance. In 1980 the Swedish attorney general finally dropped the practice of giving waivers for possession of drugs for personal use after years of lowering the thresholds. The same year police began to prioritize drug users and street-level drug crimes over drug distributors. In 1988 all non medicinally prescribed usage became illegal and in 1993 the enforcement of personal use were eased by permitting the police to take blood or urine samples from suspects. This unrelenting approach towards drug users, together with generous treatment opportunities have won UNODC's approval and is cited by the UN as one the main reason for Sweden's relatively low drug prevalence rates.^[14] However, that interpretation of the statistics and the more general success of Sweden's drug policies are highly questioned.^[19][20][21]

[edit] Zero tolerance and transportation

In Europe, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany and Sweden have zero-tolerance law for drugs and driving, this as opposed to the other main legal approach where laws forbidding impaired driving is enacted instead. The legislation among countries that practice zero tolerance on drug use for drivers varies. Only a limited set of (common) drugs are included in the zero-tolerance legislation in Germany and Belgium, where in Finland and Sweden all controlled substances fall into the scoop of zero tolerance, if they are not covered by a prescription.^[22]

[edit] Law enforcement in the United States

The terminology is most commonly used to describe the allocation of additional resources to combat identified crimes in particular geographical locations or for particular purposes. Hence, extra police patrols are deployed in known hot spots where prostitution and drug dealing are problems for local residents, specialized police units monitor the behavior of repeat offenders on the streets, and on-scene arrests in incidents of domestic violence are all claimed to be effective in reducing crime.

According to Sherman (1997), those that do not work include: neighborhood watch programs organized with police; arrests of juveniles for minor offenses; arrests of unemployed suspects for domestic assault; increased arrests or raids on drug market locations; storefront police offices in high crime locations; and police newsletters with local crime information. Those that appear promising, defined by the authors as "programs for which the level of certainty is too low to make firm conclusions, but for which based on the limited evidence there is some reason to expect some successful reduction in crime," include: proactive drunk driving arrests with breath testing may reduce accident deaths; Community policing with meetings to set priorities may reduce perceptions of crime; police showing greater respect to arrested offenders may reduce repeat offending; polite field interrogations of suspicious persons may reduce street crime; making arrest warrants to domestic violence suspects who leave the scene before police arrive may reduce domestic violence; higher number of police officers in cities may reduce crime; and gang monitoring by community workers and probation and police officers may reduce gang violence. Note that friendly or cordial policing appears to be effective at reducing recidivism risks for some serious crimes.

[edit] Criticism

This article's Criticism or Controversy section(s) may mean the article does not present a neutral point of view of the subject. It may be better to integrate the material in such sections into the article as a whole.

"Zero tolerance" policing violates the Law Enforcement Code of Conduct passed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which says in part: "The fundamental duties of a police officer include serving the community, safeguarding lives and property, protecting the innocent, keeping the peace and ensuring the rights of all to liberty, equality and justice" (cited in Robinson, 2002). This code requires that police behave in a courteous and fair manner, that they treat all citizens in a respectable and decent manner, and that they never use unnecessary force. As Robinson (2002: 206) explains:

“

Zero tolerance policing runs counter to community policing and logical crime prevention efforts. To whatever degree street sweeps are viewed by citizens as brutal, suspect, militaristic, or the biased efforts of 'outsiders,' citizens will be discouraged from taking active roles in community building activities and crime prevention initiatives in conjunction with the police. Perhaps this is why the communities that most need neighborhood watch programs are least likely to be populated by residents who take active roles in them.

”

It has been argued that zero tolerance policing will fail because its practice is alleged to destroy several important requisites for successful community policing: namely police accountability, openness to the public, and community cooperation (Cox and Wade 1998: 106).

Opponents of Zero Tolerance believe that such a policy neglects investigation on a case-by-case basis and may lead to unreasonably harsh penalties for crimes that may not warrant such penalties in reality. Another criticism of zero tolerance policies is that it makes no room for lack of judgement. For example, a crime enforced under zero tolerance rules may not make any excuses for someone who committed the crime under physical duress or insanity, and may simply ask the question "Did this person commit this crime: Yes or no?" Proponents might argue this is exactly the point; if the person commits the crime then they should receive their punishment.

[edit] See also

• Blue-collar crime
• Bob Kiley
• Community policing
• Crime mapping
• Ray Mallon
• Tolerance
• Fixing Broken Windows

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Bowling, B. (1999) The rise and fall of New York murder: zero tolerance or crack's decline? vol. 39, no. 4 (1999): 531-554.
• Cox, S. & J. Wade. (1998). The Criminal Justice Network: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Dennis, Norman; Erdos, George (2005) Cultures and Crimes, cap. 13 Dealing with Diversity: Libertarianism and Multiculturalism pp.169–183 ISBN 1-903 386-38-1
• Eck, John E.; Maguire, Edward R. (2000) Have Changes in Policing Reduced Violent Crime?, pp. 207–265 in The Crime Drop in America, edited by Alfred Blumstein and Joel Wallman. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2000.
• Fagan, Jeffrey; Franklin Zimring et June Kim, Declining Homicide in New York City : A Tale of Two Trends, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 88-4, été 1998, pp. 1277–1324.
• Marshall, Jayne (1999) Zero Tolerance Policing. South Australia Office of Crime, Issue 9 March 1999.
• Robinson, M. (2002). Justice Blind? Ideals and Realities of American Criminal Justice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Rowe, Mary and Corinne Bendersky, "Workplace Justice, Zero Tolerance and Zero Barriers: Getting People to Come Forward in Conflict Management Systems," in Negotiations and Change, From the Workplace to Society, Thomas Kochan and Richard Locke (editors), Cornell University Press, 2002
• Sherman, L., D.; Gottfredson, D; MacKenzie, J; Eck, P; Reuter & Bushway, S. (1997). "Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising." [1]
• Snider, Laureen. (2004) "Zero Tolerance Reversed: Constituting the Non-Culpable Subject in Walkerton" in What is a Crime? Defining Criminal Conduct in Contemporary Canadian Society. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, and Montreal: Laval University Press (French translation), 2004: 155-84.
• Tonello, Fabrizio (2007) Così negli Usa è fallita la Tolleranza zero [eng.: So Zero Tolerance failed in the US] published by il manifesto 31 August 2007, p.5 [2] [3] [4] (Italian)
• Wacquant, Loïc (1999) Penal ’common sense’ comes to Europe - US exports zero tolerance [5] April 1999 Le Monde Diplomatique. (original french version, ita version)
• Wacquant, Loïc (November 1999) Prisons of Poverty
• Wacquant, Loïc (2002) Sur quelques contes sécuritaires venus d’Amérique - Les impasses d’un modèle répressif (French) May 2002 Le Monde Diplomatique. (ita version)
• Wilson, James Q.; Kelling, George L.. "Broken Windows: The police and neighborhood safety" (PDF). The Atlantic Monthly, March 1982. http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/_atlantic_monthly-broken_windows.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.  [6]

[edit] External links

• http://www.overcriminalized.com Legislative Update Summeries and case studies covering Zero Tolerance laws and policies.