Public Support for “Get Smart” Criminal Justice Reform Post-2020: Virginia as a Case Study

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X221086551
• Author: Christina Mancini
• Date: 01 September 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X221086551

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(12) 1230 –1253

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X221086551

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Article

Public Support for “Get

Smart” Criminal Justice

Reform Post-2020: Virginia

as a Case Study

Christina Mancini1

Abstract

Over the last decade, some states have considered reforms to address the consequences

of “get tough” justice. The passage of recreational marijuana laws—albeit incorporated

across a minority of jurisdictions—is just one popular example. While recent scholarship

indicates support for such measures among the public, there is a need for exploration

of public views in light of the social unrest of 2020. Additionally, there is a need to

understand public views across jurisdictions that are diverse. Accordingly, Virginia stands

out as an ideal case study as it is the first state in the South to incorporate or consider

a variety of progressive justice reforms. Drawing on a statewide poll conducted in 2021

(N = 1,017), this study explores the extent to which Virginians support recreational

marijuana legislation, the repeal of mandatory minimums, and a moratorium on the

death penalty. Findings indicate that approval varies by measure and that there are

divides in public views, specifically, across socio-demographic dimensions (e.g., political

ideology), and also across views about the state of society and willingness to fund the

justice system. Implications are discussed.

Keywords

public opinion, decriminalization, over-policing, race, get smart

Introduction

Recently, some states have enacted progressive reforms aligned with reducing crimi-

nal sanctions, a counter to “get tough” justice reminiscent of prior decades. Recreational

marijuana legislation, adopted by a number of states (Hartman, 2021), is one trend in

1Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA

Corresponding Author:

Christina Mancini, L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth

University, 1003 West Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA.

Email: cnmancini@vcu.edu

1086551IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X221086551International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyMancini

research-article2022

Mancini 1231

this direction. States have considered other laws such as a repeal of mandatory mini-

mum sentences, and even a ban on the “final sanction,” capital punishment (Fuchs,

2021). Moreover, the argument that reform can reduce the cost and scope of the justice

system is one with strong bipartisan support (Mancini et al., 2020). It is perhaps then

not surprising that states have considered measures contra to the “tough on crime”

stance that has for so long guided correctional policy in the U.S.

Historically, public opinion, at least when operationalized as voting behavior con-

cerning initiatives and referenda has played a prominent role in shaping crime policy.

As Pickett (2019) recounts in a review, three-strikes laws were first passed through

citizen initiative in Washington and California in 1993 and 1994, respectively. We see

this influence more recently. To illustrate, direct voter action (e.g., referenda) has

spurred the majority of recreational marijuana laws (Hartman, 2021). In Nebraska,

after the legislature abolished capital punishment in 2015, the sanction was reinstated

through a citizen initiative the following year (Kort-Butler & Ray, 2019). There are

countless other examples of public opinion directly shaping and contouring criminal

justice reforms (Pickett, 2019; Roberts & Stalans, 1997; Welch, 2011). Importantly,

other research finds that public opinion can, at the same time, indirectly affect the

functioning and inner-workings of the justice system, by influencing the actions of

lawmakers and other criminal justice actors (e.g., prosecutors) who may become

responsive to public attitudes (Pickett, 2019).

To be sure, criminologists have long recognized the importance of studying public

attitudes toward crime. Since the mid-1990s, the height of the “get tough” era in crimi-

nal justice, levels of public punitiveness—such as support for longer prison sen-

tences—have waned (Pickett, 2019; Ramirez, 2013). For some time now, substantial

swaths of the public have favored progressive reforms like “child-saving” and correc-

tional rehabilitation (Cullen et al., 2000; Cullen et al., 2020). Recent scholarship sug-

gests attitudes aligned with restorative initiatives persist, even in “red” states like

Texas (Thielo et al., 2016; also Burton et al., 2020).

There is a need to continue this empirical momentum by studying public views

after the social unrest of 2020. That year was marked by the emergence of a global

pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter (BLM)

protests, and a highly contested presidential election (Lerer & Umhoefer, 2020)—

events that culminated to highlight continued racial and social inequities in the United

States, including in the criminal justice system.

Virginia is an interesting case study in which to situate such an investigation. It is a

state of contrasts in that it has become the first southern state to legalize marijuana. At

the same time, the Virginia prison population is higher than the national average

(Wagner & Sawyer, 2018), with significant overrepresentation of Non-Whites (Nellis,

2021). Not least, Virginia has experienced its share of “culture wars”—such as the

removal of Confederacy-era monuments, a move divided across partisan and racial

lines (Lenthang, 2021). Taken together, significant divergences across Virginians in

views of contemporary criminal justice reforms might exist.

The current study draws on a 2021 statewide poll of Virginians (N = 1,017) that

measured attitudes toward controversial reforms—marijuana legalization, the repeal