NCJ Number
133648
Journal
Crime, Law, and Social Change Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: (September 1991) Pages: 177-198
Date Published
1991
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Using annual time series data for the period 1948-1985, this study examines the extent to which changes in imprisonment rates reflect governmental attempts to offset the threat of unemployment and inflation and the fiscal limitations imposed by State expenditures on placative controls. The study tests the conflict theory which holds that systemic economic distress generates problem populations which require control via palliative and coercive means.
Abstract
The results support the conflict theory. Inflation rates and annual fluctuations in black and white male unemployment rates exert an independent positive effect upon imprisonment-rate changes when controlling for variations in violent crime rates, prison capacity, and age structure. The lack of evidence regarding trade-offs between the State's placative and coercive policies may be explained by the possible mediating effect of welfare on crime, the effect of welfare on imprisonment via other forms of coercive control, and/or the relative autonomy of social control institutions. 2 tables and 95 notes