RT Article
T1 Macro-economic determinants of penal policy: estimating the unemployment and inflation influences on imprisonment rate changes in the United States, 1948-1985
JF Crime, law and social change
VO 16
IS 2
SP 177
OP 198
A1 Lessan, Gloria T.
LA English
YR 1991
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1884505252
AB Conflict theory proposes that systemic economic distress generates problem populations which require control via palliative and coercive means. Most previous research has concentrated on examining the unemployment-imprisonment relationship. A review of the literature suggests that other structural conditions that generate marginalization as well as the state's placative control must be considered in order to understand the linkage between economic-fiscal forces and penal policy. Using annual time-series data for the period 1948-1985, the present paper examines the extent to which changes in inprisonment rates reflect (a) governmental attempts to offset the threat of unemployment and inflation and (b) fiscal limitations placed by state expenditures on placative controls. The results indicate support for the conflict thesis, with inflation rates and annual fluctuations in black and white male unemployment rates exerting an independent positive effect upon imprisonment-rate changes, after controlling for variations in violent crime rates, prison capacity, and age structure. Possible reasons for the lack of evidence regarding trade-offs between state's placative and coercive policies are discussed and suggestions for further research are noted. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AW502010 00003
K1 Conflict Theory
K1 Crime Rate
K1 Imprisonment Rate
K1 State Expenditure
K1 Violent Crime
DO 10.1007/BF00227548