Chapter 4: Public Opinion, Signal Crimes and Narrowing ‘Experiential Distance’

The conception of community sanctions as a manifestation of mercy, a ‘let off’, an ‘alternative to’ or ‘not prison’, was noted in Chapter 1. Media, public and political comment on particular sentences and sanctions, and sometimes on the whole genre of community sanctions, are often couched in ‘soft touch’, ‘let off’ and ‘slap on the wrist’ terms.

Commentary such as this highlights public opinion and public confidence in community sanctions, and in turn media treatment of community sanctions. However, before examining public opinion studies and what they tell us, it is important to subject the notion of public opinion to scrutiny. There are dangers in just accepting that the notion of public opinion and its spin-off, public confidence, represent some real state of affairs out there in the world that can be measured and weighed through public opinion survey methods. Certainly, public opinion surveys are an increasing feature of our lives and a staple of political and media discourse, especially in relation to surveys of voter intentions, where they carry force and are frequently, but not always, accurate. Surveys and the sampling and interviewing techniques underlying them have become more sophisticated and a lucrative business.