The prison boom, local interpersonal violence, and domestic violence homicide

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The US prison system has exploded since 1970, dramatically reshaping social, political, and economic life in rural communities. Since 2000, roughly one in five rural Americans resides in a prison town. The prison boom is the largest public works project perhaps since the New Deal. Despite a growing...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Sims, Kaitlyn M. (VerfasserIn)
Beteiligte: Anadon, Isabel ; Haimson, Chloe ; and Eason, John Major
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2025
In: Journal of crime and justice
Jahr: 2025, Band: 48, Heft: 2, Seiten: 250-269
Online-Zugang: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
Schlagwörter:
Social Determinants of Health
prison proliferation
Homicide
domestic violence
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The US prison system has exploded since 1970, dramatically reshaping social, political, and economic life in rural communities. Since 2000, roughly one in five rural Americans resides in a prison town. The prison boom is the largest public works project perhaps since the New Deal. Despite a growing interest in prison building, there is a dearth of research examining prison impact – the economic, political, and social costs and benefits for communities that result from building a prison. In this paper, we fill this gap by studying the relationship between prison impact – measured as binary prison presence and cumulative prison count – on violent crime, specifically, intimate partner and domestic violence homicide (IPV/DV). We explore the theoretical foundations for this relationship, including the economic, geographic, and social effects of prisons and correction officers as a high-risk group for perpetrating IPV/DV. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find evidence of a negative association between prison impact and IPV/DV homicide, with an additional prison in the county corresponding with 0.04–0.12 fewer homicide events. While we are not advocating for prison building as a violence nor crime reduction strategy for communities, our findings complicate the policy consequences of the prison boom, especially in rural communities.
ISSN:2158-9119
DOI:10.1080/0735648X.2024.2365731