in seriousness, or perceived seriousness, toward society. Furthermore, research indicates that,
the rate at which criminals commit crimes is related to the seriousness of the crimes that define their category, The more serious the category, the more likely the offender to commit crimes in that category at a high rate an to commit less serious crimes at high rates, too" (Chaiken and Chaiken, 1982, p. 12).
In addition, it appears that society is ill at ease in dealing with criminality, yet the decade of the 1960s and early 1970s focused far more on rehabilitative efforts than of concurrent punishment. The rehabilitation strategy, however, does not seem to have been very effective. There are many reasons for its ineffective nature, but,
the apparent failure of many rehabilitation programs may be due less to their content than to the nature of offenders in the programs. Standard programs of vocational training and drug rehabilitation are better aimed at criminals who engage only in income producing rather than in violent crime" (Chaiken and Chaiken, 1982, p. 27).
In fact, there is a large body of research dealing with the types of measures that are more likely to be effective in the treatment of the offender. The actual definition of the term surround the way society chooses to either incarcerate, punish, or rehabilitate those who commit acts that are considered illegal under the law. Rehabilitative efforts may include educational or vocational training under the assumption that if a person is given a legal alternative for employment, that person will avail themselves of the opportunity (Martinson, 1974, pp. 5 7). It is also possible to counsel criminals, to grant certain medical or psychological treatments which may be appropriate, or to sentence (punish) them so that future criminal acts will be discouraged. One of the problems with liberal sentencing policies, though, is that the data shows,
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