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26 American J. Crim. Just. 1 (2001-2002)

handle is hein.journals/acnjrlocm26 and id is 1 raw text is: EXECUTIVE ORDERS: Symbolic Politics, Criminal Justice Policy, and the American Presidencyt WILLARD M. OLIVERtt Radford University ABSTRACT: The theory of symbolic politics is used to examine presidential ex- ecutive orders related to criminal justice policy. It is hypothesized that presidents use executive orders to make more of a symbolic, rather than a substantive, state- ment. Data were collected from the National Archives and Records Administra- tion on all presidential executive orders from the first Eisenhower administration (1953) through the last Clinton administration (2001). A content analysis of presi- dential executive orders related to crime and justice offers partial support for the claim that presidents use these executive orders primarily for evoking symbols. the reach of the federal government's power in law enforce- ment does not penetrate to the state and local level . .. where most of the 'street crime' people we're afraid of existed. The federal government simply did not have the machinery or au- thority to deal with crime in America outside of the District of Columbia ... in the rest of America, the only thing we could do was to exercise vigorous symbolic leadership. -Donald Sanatarelli, Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Nixon INTRODUCTION Over the past forty years, American presidents have increasingly focused their administrative resources in the area of criminal justice policy (Calder, 1978, 1993; Caplan, 1973; Cronin, Cronin, & Milakovich, 1981; Dilulio, Smith, & Saiger, 1995; Finckenauer, 1978; Potter 1998; Scheingold, 1995). The presidents have created crime commissions, de- livered anti-crime speeches, proposed new criminal legislation, and is- sued executive orders related to crime (Marion, 1994a; Oliver, in press). A portion of the president's activity related to crime has been to gener- t The author would like to thank Dr. Matthew J. Franck for his review of an earlier draft of this paper and the anonymous reviewers for sharing their helpful comments. tt Direct all correspondence to: Willard M. Oliver, Radford University, Criminal Jus- tice Department, P.O. Box 6934, Radford, VA 24142. E-mail: woliver@radford.edu. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Vol. 26 No. 1, 2001 © 2001 Southern Criminal Justice Association