Penal populism is a process where the political parties with the majority of followers engage in competitions against the other on toughness on crime (Pratt, 2007). Populism is associated with the perception that while in a crowd; it is difficult to handle crime and it happens mostly during the elections period. It is at this particular time when the parties set hard-line in demands landing the majority of their follower's remand in prisons as they wait for sentencing. Penal populism reflects the dissatisfaction by the segment of the society with the leadership in the ruling where the crime victims and their leaders believe the government has forgotten their demands. Therefore, during these political campaigns parties seek for votes and do not care much about the crime happening as the results of the process. The essay writes to depict on the effects of penal populism and the zero-tolerance policies.
The offense committed by the political parties is subjected to zero tolerance policies that are punitive for the infractions of the state law intending to eliminate the undesirable behavior. Zero tolerance policies restrict those in power to change the punishment rules to favor their candidature and the personal circumstances (Shammas, 2015). Those in the ruling are required to impose a pre-determined penalty regardless of the party and where the individual hails from, personal culpability, the extenuating circumstances and the history in the record. Penal populism generates powerful media attention due to its nature of the emotional response to the terrible and often rare crime activities (Freiberg and Gelb, 2013). The predicament of politics and the media coverage creates a conducive environment for the politicians to offer quick solutions to most of the crimes. Furthermore, some of the zero-tolerance policies are provoked by the penal populism condemned of being outraged rather than considering the system underlying the circumstance about offending.
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The rise of the penal populism reflects fundament shifts in the contemporary powers brought by the changes in the social and cultural areas of the society. The penal populism develops from the fact that part of the society members not necessary the public at large, lacks faith in the ruling government due to increased corruptions, in security cases, and unmanageable economy thus spreading their views through media stations, social media handles and crowd demonstrations. The populist seeks not only to have the policies guarding the people but also to listen from the native's demands as stipulated (Newburn and Jones, 2005). The penal populism despite setting new policy agendas, it significantly redefines the official thoughts on crime and directs on punishment. Also, the penal populism gives a privilege thought to the criminals favored from the committed crime by the law-abiding persons. However, even though the public spared the wrongdoers in the societies and sent them to jail, the criminal justice centers are responsible for punishing the lawbreakers.
Furthermore, penal populism develops from division and disagreements rather than the consensus between the parties. Due to that kind of baseline, there emerges a huge of misunderstanding between the expectations of populist and the policies and the practices conducted by the criminal justice authorities. However, the penal populism is a strategy to have the plans in the sphere being more reflective of the public's demand that the values of the monitoring institutions as the criminal justice authorities (Smith, 2014). As such, the penal populism act releases many criminals to prison during the street demos that the individuals in these groups opt to commit the crime. Therefore, the zero tolerance measure is quite useful to keep the people off the streets. Even though the people are entitled to peaceful demonstrations, punitive actions to the criminals resulting from populists are subjected to deterrence means of punishment to warn against the repeat of the mistake by others.
The penal populism is very rampant with those in power as the politicians use the influence to persuade their followers in helping them push for their voices to be heard by their competitors. It is also evident that politicians do not in most cases care much about the laws guiding the republic but rather yarn to clinch the political powers by all means even at the cost of crime and jail of their supporters (Freiberg and Gelb, 2013). In the current regime, legislative powers are rendered by the people through elections; it is the reason as to why politicians and those in the ruling use penal populism to hunt for votes by forcefully addressing the will of the people perceived to be their followers. Nevertheless, political alignment is allowed, but the criminal acts in them are punishable by the law. However, increasing the severity of punishment has got no much deterrent effect, but the use of enhanced certainty on the criminal cases does reduce the illegal activities.
In conclusion, victims of crime such as the populist who fight for what they believe to be a defense of their democratic rights and the defense of the human rights ending up in jail in most cases ends up becoming famous heroes. Even though the penal populism actions can lead the individuals to jail, these persons are pushed to commit the crime to achieve what they term as justice the state could not deliver without a push. The zero-tolerance policy measures are by the law to guide the people of the nation, but without suiting the interests of the majority in the country, it is of no use to the people of that country.
References
Freiberg, A. & Gelb, K. (2013). “Penal Populism Sentencing Councils and Sentencing Policy”: Routledge New Rork. Retrieved from Web 31 st Oct 2017 https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=S3wBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=Effects+of+penal+populism+and+zero+tolerance+policies
Newburn, T. & Jones, T. (2005). “Symbolic Politics and Penal Populism”: The Long Shadow of Willie Horton. Retrieved from Web 31 st Oct 2017 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249768271_Symbolic_Politics_and_Penal_Populism_The_Long_Shadow_of_Willie_Horton
Pratt, J. (2007). “Penal Populism”: Key Ideas in Criminology Series. Retrieved from Web Oct 31 st , 2017 https://infodocks.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/john_pratt_penal_populism.pdf
Shammas V, L. (2015). "Who's Afraid of Penal Populism? Technocracy and ‘the people' in the Sociology of Punishment": Journal of Contemporary Justice Review. Vol 9 325-346. Retrieved from Web Oct 31 st , 2017 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10282580.2016.1185946?src=recsys&journalCode=gcjr20
Smith P, S. (2014). “Penal Populism and Children of Imprisoned Parents”: When the Innocent are Punished. Retrieved from 31 st Oct 2017 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137414298_16
