Law and order (politics)

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In modern politics, "law and order" is an ideological approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime.^[1] Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws and even capital punishment in some countries. Supporters of "law and order" argue that harsh punishment is the most effective means of crime prevention.^{[citation needed]} Opponents argue that a system of harsh criminal punishment is ultimately ineffective because it self-perpetuates crime and does not address underlying or systemic causes of crime.^{[citation needed]} They furthermore credit it with facilitating greater militarisation of police and contributing to mass incarceration in the United States.^[2][3]

Despite the widespread popularity of "law and order" ideas and approaches between the 1960s to the 1980s exemplified by presidential candidates including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan running successfully on a "tough-on-crime" platform, statistics on crime showed a significant increase of crime throughout the 1970s and 1980s instead, and crime rates only began declining from the 1990s onwards. To differing extents, crime has also been a prominent issue in Canadian, British, Australian, South African, French, German, and New Zealand politics.