tough on crime
Favoring harsh sentences
Tough on crime describes a political stance favoring strict law enforcement, harsher sentencing, and aggressive prosecution.
The phrase signals opposition to policies seen as lenient: She ran as a tough-on-crime candidate.
Critics note the approach often correlates with higher incarceration rates without proportional reductions in crime.
- zero tolerancePolicy allowing no infractions
- retributive justicePunishment proportional to offense
- death penaltyLegal execution for crimes
- racial profilingLaw enforcement by skin color
- gang violenceCrime by organized groups
capital punishment · mandatory sentencing · three-strikes laws · prison overcrowding · disenfranchisement · mass incarceration · parole board · stop-and-frisk · victims' rights · enhanced interrogation techniques · law and order · asset forfeiture · community policing · bail reform · economic inequality · intergenerational trauma
- conservatismconservative, traditionalism, fiscal conservative, small government, free enterprise
- tough justicelaw and order, mandatory minimums, zero tolerance, mass incarceration, death penalty
- penologypenology, prisons, incarceration, parole board, prison
- populismpopulism, demagogue, demagoguery, anti-elitism, anti-establishment
- traditionalismfamily values, traditional marriage, nuclear family, morality, patriotism
- Third WayTony Blair, Bill Clinton, New Labour, triangulation, DLC
tough on crimesoft on crime
lenient · rehabilitative · restorative justice · criminal justice reform · decarceration
tough on crimesoft on crime
tough, tougher, toughest, toughly, toughness, toughen, toughened, toughening, crime