Abstract:The now well‐documented explosion in prison populations over the last 30 years has spurred significant attention in the literature. Early research focused primarily on economic explanations. More recently it has focused on political explanations of prison growth. Here we extend research on political explanations of imprisonment by drawing on the literature on state politics and public policy. We argue that the effect of partisan politics on punishment is conditional on how much electoral competition legislator… Show more
“…Studies show that growth in the percent of the population that is African-American or nonwhite is associated with increases in public support for criminal punishment (Baumer et al 2003;King and Wheelock 2007), spending on corrections (Jacobs and Helms 1999;Stucky et al 2007), police strength and relative size of law enforcement agencies (Liska et al 1981;Jackson 1989;D'Alessio et al 2005;Stults and Baumer 2007), incarceration rates (Jacobs and Helms 1996;Beckett and Western 2001;Greenberg and West 2001;Jacobs and Carmichael 2001;Sorensen and Stemen 2002) and use of capital punishment Carmichael 2002, 2004). The findings regarding the influence of increases in Latino populations are less clear, however, with one study reporting an association with imprisonment rates (Jacobs and Carmichael 2001) and others finding no relationship once other relevant variables are controlled (Greenberg and West 2001;Stucky et al 2005). On balance, the empirical evidence is generally supportive of the minority presence thesis, in which increases in African American populations are associated with increases in punitive criminal justice responses.…”
Section: Poor Populations Minority Presence and Imprisonmentmentioning
Female imprisonment rates have increased proportionately more than male imprisonment rates over recent decades. There are substantial race differences in women's rates, as is the case for men. Yet, there has been little quantitative research on the correlates of women's imprisonment using data over time, or on potential race differences in those correlates. The present research analyzes data on black and nonblack female imprisonment rates in the 50 states for the period 1981-2003. The analyses are guided substantively by existing research on race, social threat and criminal punishment, and theory and research on the penal-welfare hypothesis. The study uses bivariate-response multilevel modeling to simultaneously examine the factors associated with black and nonblack women's imprisonment rates. The results show that black female imprisonment rates increase when the concentration of African Americans in metropolitan areas and poverty rates grow, whereas nonblack female imprisonment rates are unaffected by poverty rates and actually decrease when African American populations become more concentrated in metro areas. Both black An earlier version of this paper was presented at the and nonblack women's imprisonment rates increase when welfare spending declines. The results are consistent with social threat perspectives and the penal-welfare hypotheses.
“…Studies show that growth in the percent of the population that is African-American or nonwhite is associated with increases in public support for criminal punishment (Baumer et al 2003;King and Wheelock 2007), spending on corrections (Jacobs and Helms 1999;Stucky et al 2007), police strength and relative size of law enforcement agencies (Liska et al 1981;Jackson 1989;D'Alessio et al 2005;Stults and Baumer 2007), incarceration rates (Jacobs and Helms 1996;Beckett and Western 2001;Greenberg and West 2001;Jacobs and Carmichael 2001;Sorensen and Stemen 2002) and use of capital punishment Carmichael 2002, 2004). The findings regarding the influence of increases in Latino populations are less clear, however, with one study reporting an association with imprisonment rates (Jacobs and Carmichael 2001) and others finding no relationship once other relevant variables are controlled (Greenberg and West 2001;Stucky et al 2005). On balance, the empirical evidence is generally supportive of the minority presence thesis, in which increases in African American populations are associated with increases in punitive criminal justice responses.…”
Section: Poor Populations Minority Presence and Imprisonmentmentioning
Female imprisonment rates have increased proportionately more than male imprisonment rates over recent decades. There are substantial race differences in women's rates, as is the case for men. Yet, there has been little quantitative research on the correlates of women's imprisonment using data over time, or on potential race differences in those correlates. The present research analyzes data on black and nonblack female imprisonment rates in the 50 states for the period 1981-2003. The analyses are guided substantively by existing research on race, social threat and criminal punishment, and theory and research on the penal-welfare hypothesis. The study uses bivariate-response multilevel modeling to simultaneously examine the factors associated with black and nonblack women's imprisonment rates. The results show that black female imprisonment rates increase when the concentration of African Americans in metropolitan areas and poverty rates grow, whereas nonblack female imprisonment rates are unaffected by poverty rates and actually decrease when African American populations become more concentrated in metro areas. Both black An earlier version of this paper was presented at the and nonblack women's imprisonment rates increase when welfare spending declines. The results are consistent with social threat perspectives and the penal-welfare hypotheses.
“…Beckett and Western 2001;Greenberg and West 2001;Helms 1996, 2001;Carlson 1999, 2000;Smith 2004;Stucky, Heimer, and Lang 2005). Although early research on punishment focused primarily on economic explanations (see Chiricos and Delone 1992 for a review), more recent research has focused on political explanations, generally focusing on prison populations rather than corrections expenditures.…”
The dramatic increase in American state prison populations over the last three decades has sparked considerable research interest. Empirical research has most often examined changes in prison admissions or populations. Few studies, however, have considered another important indicator of punishment-shifts over time in state corrections budgets. This study examines variation in annual, state-level corrections expenditures as a proportion of state total expenditures from 1980 to 1998. We draw together existing theoretical arguments about criminal punishment under a common rubric that we call a "politics of social order perspective" which focuses on state responsibility for the maintenance of social order and the need for state officials to maintain office through popular election. From this view, partisan politics, economic and racial threat, citizen preferences, fiscal considerations, policy priorities, and crime are important explanations of corrections spending because they affect strategies for maintaining social order, garnering votes and maintaining political office. Our findings generally support this perspective. Specifically, partisan politics, racial threat, state economic prosperity, and budgetary priorities all play a role in determining the proportion of state expenditures devoted to corrections over time.
“…4 By focusing on street crime and other social problems readily blamed on underclass minorities, Republicans won elections by using this "wedge" issue to gain sufficient votes from less prosperous citizens. Multiple findings show that Republican (Jacobs and Carmichael 2001;Stucky et al 2005;Western 2006) or conservative political strength (Sutton 2000) led to severe criminal justice outcomes. Because capital punishment has been an important issue in many state political campaigns (Constanzo 1997) and because Jacobs and Carmichael (2002) find that this punishment is likely to be legal in states with the strongest Republican parties, we expect that greater Republican political strength in a state should increase execution probabilities.…”
Section: Contextual Explanations: Racial Threat Political Ideology mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Many studies use individual data to explain trial court sentencing, but others rely on aggregate data to study additional criminal justice outcomes. State or national attributes have been used to explain shifts in incarceration rates (Jacobs and Carmichael 2001;Jacobs and Helms 1996;Stucky, Heimer, and Lang 2005;Sutton 2000;Western 2006). The urban conditions that explain police department size (Jacobs 1979;Kent and Jacobs 2005), arrest rates (Brown and Warner 1992), or the use of deadly force by the police (Jacobs and O'Brien 1998) have been researched as well.…”
What are the relationships between death row offender attributes, social arrangements, and executions? Partly because public officials control executions, theorists view this sanction as intrinsically political. Although the literature has focused on offender attributes that lead to death sentences, the post-sentencing stage is at least as important. States differ sharply in their willingness to execute and less than 10 percent of those given a death sentence are executed. To correct the resulting problems with censored data, this study uses a discrete-time event history analysis to detect the individual and state-level contextual factors that shape execution probabilities. The findings show that minority death row inmates convicted of killing whites face higher execution probabilities than other capital offenders. Theoretically relevant contextual factors with explanatory power include minority presence in nonlinear form, political ideology, and votes for Republican presidential candidates. Inasmuch as there is little or no systematic research on the individual and contextual factors that influence execution probabilities, these findings fill important gaps in the literature.
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