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The Politics of Prison Expansion Winning Elections by Waging War on Crime
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Joseph Dillon Davey
Book Code: C6209
ISBN: 0-275-96209-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-96209-8
168 pages, tables
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 7/30/1998
List Price: $106.95 (UK Sterling Price: £59.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: In the last two decades there has been an unprecedented increase in the use of imprisonment in the United States. This expansion of the imprisonment rate did not happen in the other Western democracies and, more importantly, it happened very unevenly among the fifty states. Professor Davey examines the change in the rate of imprisonment in relationship to the crime rate as well as six other socio-economic variables. Davey then examines a number of states in detail to assess the key factors that resulted in increased imprisonment. Professor Davey concludes from the analyses that "law and order" politics of individual governors was the pivotal factor in the decision to expand prisons. Expansion was neither an outgrowth of unusual crime increases nor an effective method of reducing further crime increases, but waging "war on crime" was a very effective method of winning elections.
Table of Contents:
  • Tables
  • Introduction
  • The Puzzle of Imprisonment Increases
  • Review of the Literature on Imprisonment Growth
  • The Unusual Relationship Between Crime and Imprisonment: Are Crime Rates Salient for Imprisonment Increases?
  • Socio-Economic Variables: Are the "Usual Suspects" Salient for Imprisonment Increases?
  • The "Law-and Order" Governors and Their Counterparts
  • How the Prison Population Grew
  • The Social Value of Prison Expansion
  • Appendixes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
LC Card Number: 97-49278
LCC Class: HV9471
Dewey Class: 365
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