Punishment and Social Structure

Do legal origins affect cross-country incarceration rates?

“…For example, business cycle volatility may negatively relate to prison populations as worsening economic conditions incentivize crime (Rusche and Kirchheimer, 1939;Cavadino andDignan 2006a, 2006b); however, the empirical results are ambiguous (Neapolitan, 2001;Sutton 2000Sutton , 2004Ruddell, 2005). In addition to log GDP per capita, we also include the annual economic growth rate to incorporate this argument.…”

“…For example, economic performance could drive the level of incarceration. Higher incomes may foster incentives for criminal behavior through inequality or social disruption (Rusche and Kirchheimer, 1939;Foucault, 1975;Wilkins, 1991;Wacquant 1999Wacquant , 2001De Giorgi, 2006). Also, wealthier countries can afford to imprison criminals (Levitt, 1998;Kessler and Levitt, 1999).…”

Punishment: Social and Legal Aspects

“…Drawing on Elias, Spierenburg (1984 has challenged the claims implicit in toolkit one (Rusche and Kirchheimer, 2003) and explicit in toolkit two (Foucault, 1977) -that penal change happens in a series of ruptures or sharp breaks with the past. Rather, according to this research, the decline of scaffold punishment and the rise of imprisonment were gradual changes reflecting slowly shifting social sentiments of citizens and especially elite actors rather than catastrophic failures of top-down control strategies (see also Masur, 1989;Gattrell, 1994).…”

“…Georg Rusche andOtto Kirchheimer (1939, 2003) explored ruptures one, two, and the beginnings of three as a function of the political economic conditions and the structure of class power underlying punishment and society. The harsh punishments of physical mutilation and death frequently exacted by courts of the early modern period reflected the lack of economic value in human labor created by conditions of surplus labor supply, as feudalism broke down but before capitalism had produced a demand for unskilled labor.…”

Scholar’s Symposium: The Work of Angela Y. Davis

“…AsRusche and Kirchheimer (1939/1968) wrote, ''The bond, transparent or not, that is supposed to exist between crime and punishment prevents any insight into the independent significance of the history of penal systems. It must be broken'' (p. 5).…”