RT Article
T1 American exceptionalism in inequality and poverty: a (tentative) historical explanation
JF Tracing the relationship between inequality, crime, and punishment
SP 41
OP 67
A1 Lacey, Nicola
A2 Soskice, David W. 1942-
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1879519054
AB The United States is a fascinating case study in the complex links between crime, punishment and inequality, standing out as it does in terms of inequality as measured by a number of economic standards; levels of serious violent crime; and rates of imprisonment, penal surveillance and post-conviction disqualifications. This chapter builds on the authors’ previous work arguing that the exceptional rise in violent crime and punishment in the US from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s can be explained by the interaction of four political and economic variables: ‘technological regime change’; ‘varieties of capitalism’ and ‘varieties of welfare state’; types of ‘political system’; and - critically and specifically - the US as a radical outlier in the degree of local democracy. Three further questions implied by the authors’ previous work are asked. First, why did such distinctive patterns of local democracy arise in America? And how is this political structure tied up with the history and politics of race? Second, what did the distinctive historical development of the US political economy in the 19th century imply for the structure of its criminal justice institutions? And third, why did the burden of crime and punishment come to fall so disproportionately on African Americans?
SN 9780197266922
K1 Inequality
K1 Poverty
K1 Crime
K1 Punishment
K1 Local autonomy
K1 Race
K1 Segregation
K1 American Exceptionalism
DO 10.5871/bacad/9780197266922.003.0003