Law and order (politics)

Common card · No. 270270

"Law and order" is an approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws and even capital punishment in some countries. Those who support the "Law and Order" movement view harsh punishment as a deterrent for crime. Despite the widespread popularity of "law and order" ideas and approaches from the 1960s to the 1980s exemplified by presidential candidates including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan running successfully on a "tough-on-crime" platform, statistics on crime showed a significant increase in crime throughout the 1970s and 1980s instead, and crime rates only began declining from the 1990s onwards. To differing extents, crime has also been a prominent issue in Canadian, British, Australian, South African, French, German, and New Zealand politics. Opponents of the "law and order" movement make the argument that harsh punishment is unsuccessful...

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