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Crime and the Politics of Hysteria: How the Willie Horton Story Changed American Justice.(Brief Article)
David C. Anderson. Times Books, $25 (288p) ISBN 0-8129-2061-9
In the 1970s, penologists began to articulate the philosophy that the purpose of incarceration is punishment, not rehabilitation. Thus the incident of a convict sentenced to life who, while on furlough in 1987, terrorized a couple and raped the woman can hardly be said to have altered the system substantially. Yet the case of Willie Horton is widely acknowledged to have helped decide the 1988 presidential election, when George Bush defeated Michael Dukakis after Republicans accused the Massachusetts governor of …
