The Political Economy of Incarceration Trends in Late U.S. Capitalism: 1971-1977

Partisan Politics, Electoral Competition and Imprisonment: An Analysis of States Over Time*

“…Indeed, research on imprisonment (e.g. Beckett and Western, 2001;Garland, 1985;Inverarity and Grattet, 1989;Wallace, 1980), as well as research on the welfare state (e.g. Griffin,…”

Castigo y Economía Política

“…Esto no es para sugerir que el tradicional análisis político-económico, con su enfoque reduccionista en las relaciones entre desempleo y encarcelamiento (Jankovic, 1977;Greenberg, 1980;Wallace, 1980;Galster y Scaturo, 1985;Inverarity y McCarthy, 1988), ha sido apto para elaborar una crítica estructural convincente del castigo contemporáneo; tampoco para argumentar que el énfasis exclusivo en el castigo como instrumento de control de clase podría proveer de una explicación exhaustiva de las políticas penales en las sociedades contemporáneas. De hecho, desde la perspectiva que definiría como una economía política "post-reduccionista" del castigo, el desafío es concebir una crítica no ortodoxa de las estrategias penales, que sea capaz de superar la falsa alternativa entre la "estructura" y la "cultura", y teniendo en cuenta al mismo tiempo importantes inquietudes teóricas planteadas por otras corrientes críticas al interior del campo del castigo y la sociedad.…”

Punishment and Social Structure Revisited: Unemployment and Imprisonment in the United States, 1948–1984

“…Similarly, Italian prison admission rates from 1896 to 1965 are related to the business cycle (Melossi 1985). * In a two-wave panel analysis of states, Wallace (1980) finds that the 1976 labor force participation rate affects negatively the change in inmates per capita from 1972 to 1976 with AFDC levels, property crime rates, region, and criminal justice expenditures held constant. Wallace's results are broadly consistent with Jankovic's thesis.3 Galster and Scaturo (1985), on the other hand, in regressing incarceration and release rates on unemployment among 50 states for each of six years (1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981), find no evidence consistent with the previous studies; indeed, their estimated relationship between unemployment and imprisonment is generally negative or n~nsignificant.~ Failure to find fully consistent evidence linking unemployment and imprisonment may reflect a deficiency in the scope conditions of the RK formulation.…”