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Title: The Rise of Criminal Background Screening in Rental Housing

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2008

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Abstract: This article investigates the recent rise of criminal background screening in rental housing as a case study of the diffusion of actuarial social control. That case study suggests that actuarial techniques have spread more widely through the crime prevention field than sociolegal scholars have recognized, replacing disciplinary efforts to diagnose and alter the behavior of individuals with actuarial efforts to identify and isolate high-risk groups. This actuarial strategy has proliferated not only because new discourses encouraged it but also because new institutional structures facilitated it. That conclusion illustrates the importance of structural (rather than cultural) factors in shaping societys response to crimeparticularly the growing availability of the collective institutional capacity that actuarial social control requires.

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Authors: Thacher, David

Periodical (Full): Law and Social Inquiry

Issue: 1

Volume: 33

Pages: 5-30

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Crime and Deviance, Housing and Segregation

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