Congress, Crime, and Budgetary Responsiveness

Abstract

In 1980, Caldeira and Cowart theorized that Congress has been responsive in its budgetary responsibilities to the rise in official crime rates. Their findings based on their study from 1935 to 1975 supported the theory that Congress was engaged in substantive policy making. This article theorizes that Caldeira and Cowarts' findings are no longer true and that criminal justice policy making has become more symbolic in recent years. Hence, budgetary appropriations should no longer be responsive to the rise and fall in official crime rates. Drawing on the theory of symbolic politics, which posits that political acts are viewed as symbols conveying a political meaning that are an end unto themselves, this study replicates and updates the work of Caldeira and Cowart. The study finds support for the theory of symbolic politics and suggests that Congressional involvement in crime policy, beginning in the early 1970s, has become even more symbolic.