A Sociological Approach to the Penal Populism Phenomenon

Adopting a penal populist approach by the criminal justice administrators and policymakers has been one of the most important damages the different systems of criminal justice have been faced with in the recent decades. By reviewing all the available literature on the issue and, using descriptive-analytical methods and library studies, the present research tried to study the penal populism phenomenon through a sociological approach. In other words, as its most important objective, the present research is concerned with explaining and analyzing sociological contexts leading to the formation of penal populism. The findings showed that different sociological contexts help in rising penal populism phenomenon in a criminal justice system and criminal policy - from which public ignorance, undeniable impacts of mass media, and ever increased public fear of crime can be mentioned as the most important ones. It seems that, controlling or decreasing social contexts which result in penal populism require ever more increasing of mass awareness, optima and consistent management of mass media, and ever more use of criminological and sociological findings in the process of fighting crimes.