Interest Group Influence in Policy Formulation      

Marion and Oliver define interest groups as “pressure group, special interest, organized interest, of faction, as a group of citizens who are organized and attempt to influence legislation so it reflects their interest or policy goals.” (p.281). Consider exploring the sources in the CRJ510 Professional Resources List to assist your research for this activity.

Initial Post: Read the Lutze and Schaefer article and use it as a springboard for this discussion.  Reentry and rehabilitation programs are controversial and have proponents on both sides of the issues.  Explain the role special interest groups play in their effort to influence legislation that dictates reentry and rehabilitation policy. Then from a macro perspective, should there be so many access points that allow special interest groups to access legislators? What are the negatives to allowing special interest groups to have an active role in political campaigns? Support your claims with examples from the required materials and/or other scholarly sources, and properly cite your references with both in-text and APA citations at the end of your post.

Guided Response: Review your peers’ posts, and substantively respond in a meaningful way to at least two of your peers. You may look at this from the perspective of reentry and rehabilitation or from a more macro perspective. Take a contrarian view from your peers, and present different perspectives on the role of special interest groups in their effort to influence the formulation of criminal justice policy. What are the positives to relying on special interest groups to actively influence the formulation of criminal justice policy? How do special interest groups influence criminal justice policy in an effort to adjust social justice issues? Support your position with scholarly references. Respond to at least one Instructor Response in the discussion. Continue to monitor the discussion forum until 5:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) on Day 7, and respond with robust dialogue to anyone who replies to your initial post.