Full Citation
Title: Stressed to the Punishing Point: Economic Insecurity and State Imprisonment Rates
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2020
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI: 10.1177/2329496520935651
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: This research examines the association between economic insecurity and imprisonment rates in the United States. Building on Garland’s thesis about punishment and late modernity, it is hypothesized that rising economic insecurity in a population is associated with an increase in the imprisonment rate. This hypothesis is tested with state-level data for the years 1986–2013. Results indicate a robust association between changes in economic insecurity, measured as the percentage of households in a state losing a quarter or more of their income in a single year, and changes in imprisonment rates. This finding suggests that economic insecurity is not only relevant for explaining large-scale shifts in penal philosophy and practice, as prior sociological theory has argued. It also explains some of the year-to-year variation in imprisonment rates and points to another way in which inequality is associated with punishment.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Malone, Ryan D., King
Periodical (Full): Social Currents
Issue: 6
Volume: 7
Pages: 491-507
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Crime and Deviance, Poverty and Welfare
Countries: