Law and Order

LAW AND ORDER has been a major campaign issue in U.S. elections since the early 1960s. While it has traditionally been viewed as a Republican issue, Democrats have responded with their own proposals, and both sides have seen the issue drive major legislation. However, the conventional view that law and order became an issue due to public demand appears unfounded. Only in the 1970s was the public's belief in crime as a serious problem matched by high crime rates. Yet, candidates continued to run on the issue in the 1980s and 1990s, while crime rates flattened out and eventually declined during this period.

It was Senator Barry Goldwater who first made law and order into a major campaign issue. During his 1964 presidential run he observed that the U.S. was facing a rising threat to public safety and security. He argued that various U.S. Supreme Court decisions had shifted laws in favor of criminals and made it impossible for police to do their jobs. He made a focus of his campaign a pledge to appoint judges who would correct the rulings the court had handed down.

Although Goldwater did not win the election, his highlighting of law and order as an issue would remain with the public and influenced President Lyndon Johnson's policies. In addition to declaring a war on crime in 1965, Johnson established a crime commission, whose 1967 report, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, advocated greater federal financial assistance to state and local law enforcement. Moreover, the passage of the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act established the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration to provide money to law enforcement agencies at the state and local level.

Law and order was also an important issue in the 1968 presidential campaign. Richard Nixon sounded themes that were reminiscent of Goldwater, as he challenged U.S. Supreme Court decisions. However, he went further by arguing that Johnson's efforts to alleviate crime through civil rights legislation and poverty reduction methods were misguided; he advocated punishment as the answer. Governor George Wallace, while failing to provide details, went even further in expressing a need for harsh measures. Hubert Humphrey remained supportive, not only of the various Supreme Court decisions, but also the continued need for bringing about racial equality and ending poverty.

The issue was not as prominent during the 1972 campaign, although the Democrats did promote the idea of controlling handguns and reforming prisons. Yet, it dominated the 1976 campaign. Governor Ronald Reagan continued to champion the view that federal court decisions had put law enforcement at a disadvantage and were allowing criminals to go free. He sought to bring back the death penalty and impose mandatory sentences for those convicted of using a gun to commit a crime. President Gerald Ford did not go as far as Reagan, but he, too, supported the death penalty and mandatory sentences for certain types of crimes. The Democrats were even more varied in their stances. Governor Jimmy Carter attempted to satisfy both sides by noting a need to reduce unemployment, while also supporting the death penalty in some circumstances and placing more police in areas with high crime rates. Governor George Wallace and Senator Henry Jackson both believed that harsh penalties were the only effective deterrent, and expressed a need for mandatory sentences and the death penalty. Representative Morris Udall came from the opposite side and opposed the death penalty. He also believed that the courts could be improved by increasing the number of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, while also advocating community-based programs, job placement, and improvements to the parole system as a way to reduce recidivism.

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