il the crime bill. In the end Republican fears of being perceived by the general public as opposed to crime control so soon prior to the election permitted the president to develop a bipartisan majority to enact the legislation.
Public opinion and interest group theory, thus, were at work in the debate over crime control (Idleson, 1994, pp. 2048-2049). Conflict theory is a sociological proposition offered as an alternative to structural functional theory. Proponents of conflict theory contend that structural functional theory either neglects the empirical fact that conflicts of value and interest or inherent in all forms of human society or treats such conflicts in only a secondary context. The conflict paradigm describes social life as a struggle among competing individuals and groups (Babbie, 1992, p. 57). Social justice is rarely the sole motivation for the pursuit of legislation, and frequently is not even the dominant motivation. As often as not, self interest is a strong motivator for the individuals involved in the advocacy of social causes and for individuals and groups active in the support of such causes (Feldstein, 1988, p. 45).
The functioning of the self interest model may be illustrated through a consideration of the activities of the parties to the crime bill debate. Crime prevention programs in the United States are heavily dependent upon the federal government for funding support. Law enforcement and criminal justice agencies, thus, have a self interest in the promotion of legislation that would provide such funding. While the future recipients of the legislated benefits of the proposed legislation are mobilized to lobby for its enactment, the primary demanders for the legislation are not the law enforcement and criminal justice agencies so mobilized, but, rather, organized groups with an economic self interest to promote such legislation. Chief among these interest groups are advocate organizations su...