Full Citation
Title: The Effects of Local Labor Market Opportunities and Political Ideology on Imprisonment Rates
Citation Type: Conference Paper
Publication Year: 2011
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Abstract: There are reasons to believe that changes in local labor market conditions in recent decades are associated with rates of imprisonment in the United States. Technological advancements and the decline of manufacturing production in urban areas eliminated many high-paying job opportunities that were previously available to less-educated workers. Furthermore, scholars have long argued that the loss of skilled blue-collar job opportunities has been particularly detrimental for the economic situations of historically disadvantaged racial minorities. During the same time-period, social policies shifted, reflecting a new orientation toward poor populations. Research has yet to consider how specific labor market shifts (e.g., deindustrialization) affected the economic situations of less-skilled and minority workers and may also influence imprisonment rates. Similarly, no research has investigated the effects of these shifts as they coincided with political movements that redefined and fundamentally shifted policies targeting poor populations. This research investigates these issues using a combination of data sources, including National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP), Integrated Public Use Micro Sample (IPUMS), citizen and government ideology (Berry et al 2010), general election (ICPSR 1995) and Federal Elections Project data (Lublin and Voss 2001), spanning the years 1990 2000 and across more than 500 local areas, predicting that the labor market, economic and political contexts associated with inequality are positively associated with imprisonment rates as well.
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Authors: Cumley, Samantha
Conference Name: American Society of Criminology
Publisher Location: Washington, DC
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Crime and Deviance, Labor Force and Occupational Structure
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