Penal populism

Penal populism is a form of governance where lawmakers choose criminal penalties by their popularity among voters, rather than by their effectiveness for dealing with crime and social problems. The phrase was coined in 1993 by Anthony Bottoms, when he labeled it one of the four main influences on contemporary criminal justice. It has been theorized that the rise of penal populism has brought an increase in the repressiveness of various nation's criminal laws, including that of the UK, Canada under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. and the United States during the War on Drugs.