Race,Hyper‐Incarceration,and US Poverty Policy in Historic Perspective

In this article, I bring scholarship on welfare reform into discussion with work on crime control and racial and ethnic relations. I locate the genesis of hyper‐incarceration and the moral suasion imposed on the recipients of contemporary social welfare services through the poverty policies of the Victorian era and later the postbellum south, implicating the checkered history of racial domination in the United States in the development of social welfare and criminal justice policy. I conclude by discussing the ways in which the United States has been reconfigured to facilitate these trends and of new terrain in the study of marginality in the neoliberal age. Doing so demonstrates the long‐standing collusion between welfare state and criminal justice actors, identifies the racialized target of punishment and poverty management, highlights the significance of race in the development of social policy, and exhibits the importance of social welfare policy in contemporary race and ethnic relations.     

The U.S. Criminal Justice System: A Role for Radical Social Work

ABSTRACT

Characteristics of the current United States criminal justice system include mass incarceration at a rate higher than that of any other Western country, extraordinarily long sentences, rampant racial discrimination, and discrimination against all low-income persons. The impact of this system goes beyond devastation of those subject to supervision of the system to their families, communities, and society at large. This article analyzes the current criminal justice system relative to neoliberalism and ongoing reform efforts. The possible roles of radical social work in facilitating reforms and connecting criminal justice advocacy and issues to larger structural issues as well as direct practice strategies are explored.     

Tweeting Toward Transformation: Prison Abolition and Criminal Justice Reform in 140 Characters

The United States is the world leader in confining bodies behind bars. As scholars, practitioners, and activists struggle against the problem of mass incarceration, this article makes a distinction between two competing perspectives, both of which seek to change the current criminal legal system: “prison abolition” and “reformism.” Each represents ideological and political differences in how mass incarceration should and could be resolved. Prior research has relied on historical methods and data to examine theoretical departures between prison reform and prison abolition, yet to our knowledge, there have been no explorations of these perspectives on new media. This article fills the gap, drawing on a sample of 2,112,206 tweets between 2011 and 2020 and engaging in an in-depth qualitative analysis of nearly 5,000 tweets over a 6-year period in order to investigate the ways Twitter users disclose and define their positions on criminal justice reform on one hand, and prison abolition on the other, and how these discussions have changed over time.     

The racial implications of the effects of parental incarceration on intergenerational mobility

This review focuses on adverse effects of parental incarceration disproportionately experienced by minority youth. Mass incarceration has not been just the widespread removal of individual social isolates and deviants from society, but has also been the removal of parents and family members from homes and communities. First, this review discusses the racial implications of a vast and multidimensional, punitive and stigmatizing, criminal justice system. The review then focuses on the intergenerational effects of mass incarceration that limit intergenerational mobility, such as the reduced educational attainment of those experiencing parental incarceration. Using existing literature in the field, the review highlights the workings of intergenerational transmissions of stigma and strain in the production of disadvantage for children of incarcerated parents. Finally, the need for more restorative forms of justice is discussed.     

Parole Revocation in the Era of Mass Incarceration

The explosive growth of US prison populations over the last 30 years—now known as ‘mass incarceration’—has been driven by harsh sentences delivered to offenders by criminal courts, but the increasingly common practice of parole revocation has also contributed significantly to this phenomenon. As the criminal justice system has been reoriented away from rehabilitation and toward punitive objectives, the function of parole has changed accordingly. No longer focused on the successful reintegration of offenders, parole has been transformed into a managerial instrument that mainly serves to identify and reincarcerate dangerous criminals. This function entails a substantial amount of discretion in revocation decision making, raising concerns about the further entrenchment of disadvantage among already impoverished populations. However, given the professional and reputational pressures on state parole boards, revocation decision making logics appear rational. Reducing the flow of parole violators into prisons, therefore, is far more complicated than the technical re-engineering of parole practices. Such reform necessarily involves questioning our fundamental philosophies of punishment.     

The Criminalization of Muslims in the United States, 2016

The criminalization of Muslims—framing an Islamic religious identity as a problem to be solved using state crime control logic—is undeniably in process in the United States. Local, state, and federal statutes target Muslims for surveillance and exclusion, and media sources depict Muslims as synonymous with terrorism, as others have shown. This paper analyzes the public’s role in the criminalization of Islam, which I call “cr-Islamization.” Drawing on in-depth, qualitative interviews in a major Southwest city during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, I detail how the majority of 144 politically, racially, and economically diverse interviewees talk about Muslims as a potential “racial threat,” using “fear of crime” language indicative of the mass incarceration era. This suggests that criminalization theory should be central to sociological studies of Muslims in the contemporary United States, and that criminalization rhetoric remains powerful, despite mainstream enthusiasm for criminal justice reform. I argue that criminalization’s power might reside in its ability to mutate in the “post-racial” era. The mechanisms supporting crimmigration, the criminalization of black Americans, and cr-Islamization are related but not identical. Muslims are religiously and racially subjugated, but more economically secure compared to other criminalized groups. This paper’s findings should prompt scholars to re-examine the relationships between racialization, criminalization, religious subjugation, and economic exploitation in the twenty-first century United States.

     

Colonial criminology: A survey of what it means and why it is important

As the United States is experiencing unprecedented high rates of incarceration, especially of minorities and marginalized communities, racialized punishment has been addressed by many scholars (Alexander 2010; Wacquant 2001; Cole 1999, Tonry 2011; Stevenson 2014). Studies have shown the connection between racialized structures of inequality, punishment, and colonization (Agozino 2000, 2003; Irwin and Umemoto 2016; Bosworth and Flavin 2007). However, scholars have recognized a void in the discussion of colonial theory in the field of criminology (Agozino 2003; Cunneen and Tauri 2016; Bosworth and Flavin 2007). In this paper, I identify several ways in which criminology is closely tied to colonialism. I argue that a colonial criminology perspective assists in identifying power distinctions that construct notions of difference, thus providing a more nuanced understanding of crime, violence, and criminalization as a response to oppression and alienation. I focus primarily on colonialism in Hawai'i because of its fairly recent colonization and continuing indigenous struggle for Hawaiian sovereignty. Furthermore, Hawai'i is representative of racial and ethnic inequality and disparity within the United States criminal justice system, as the majority of both the adult and juvenile incarcerated populations in Hawai'i are of Native Hawaiian and/or Pacific Islander decent.     

Shifting Perceptions of Race and Incarceration as Adolescents Age: Addressing Disproportionate Minority Contact by Understanding How Social Environment Informs Racial Attitudes

African American youth disproportionately experience incarceration in the United States and a number of programs have been created to address disproportionate minority contact (DMC) with the juvenile justice system. Thus, we aim to understand the ways in which race and incarceration are conceptualized differently by younger and older youth. Within these age categories we explore how perceptions of incarceration and crime inform racial attitudes among African American adolescents. We also investigate how a program grounded in an operating framework that extols an achievement ideology and designed to decrease DMC among African American adolescent males shapes participants’ attitudes about race and incarceration and their perceived future trajectories Our findings suggest the older participants were less likely to embrace achievement ideology and more likely to be aware of the structural barriers related to race. Thus, a more culturally responsive, critically engaged intervention may be more appropriate for African American youth.     

When police patrols matter. The effect of police proximity on citizens’ crime risk perception

Crime risk perception is known to be an important determinant of individual well-being. It is therefore crucial that we understand the factors affecting this perception so that governments can identify the (public) policies that might reduce it. Among such policies, public resources devoted to policing emerge as a key instrument not only for tackling criminal activity but also for impacting on citizens’ crime risk perception. In this framework, the aim of this study is to analyze both the individual and neighbourhood determinants of citizens’ crime risk perception in the City of Barcelona (Spain) focusing on the effect of police proximity and taking into account the spatial aspects of neighbourhood characteristics. After controlling for the possible problems of the endogeneity of police forces and crime risk perception and the potential sorting of individuals across neighbourhoods, the results indicate that crime risk perception is reduced when non-victims exogenously interact with police forces. Moreover, neighbourhood variables, such as proxies of social capital and the level of incivilities, together with individual characteristics have an impact on citizens’ crime risk perception.     

The impact on taxpayer costs of a jail diversion program for people with serious mental illness

Mental illness is prevalent among those incarcerated. Jail diversion is one means by which people with mental illness are treated in the community – often with some criminal justice system oversight – instead of being incarcerated. Jail diversion may lead to immediate reductions in taxpayer costs because the person is no longer significantly engaged with the criminal justice system. It may also lead to longer term reductions in costs because effective treatment may ameliorate symptoms, reduce the number of future offenses, and thus subsequent arrests and incarceration. This study estimates the impact on taxpayer costs of a model jail diversion program for people with serious mental illness. Administrative data on criminal justice and treatment events were combined with primary and secondary data on the costs of each event. Propensity score methods and a quasi-experimental design were used to compare treatment and criminal justice costs for a group of people who were diverted to a group of people who were not diverted. Diversion was associated with approximately $2800 lower taxpayer costs per person 2 years after the point of diversion (p < .05). Reductions in criminal justice costs drove this result. Jail diversion for people with mental illness may thus be justified fiscally.     

“Behind every woman in prison is a man”: Incarcerated Women’s Perceptions of How We Can Better Help Them in the Context of Interpersonal Victimization

ABSTRACT

Although women’s rates of incarceration have increased dramatically, the criminal justice system does not meet women’s unique needs. This article used qualitative methods to describe the responses of 113 incarcerated women to the following question: How can we better help women like you? Analyses focused on women’s experiences of victimization and highlighted how to address trauma in prison reform and abolition efforts. Women suggested how victimization fueled their criminal offending behavior, detailed re-victimization in the prison milieu, and identified program gaps during custody and after release. Opportunities for immediate action include policy advocacy, mitigation, and shifting to a trauma-informed correctional approach.     

Justice that Restores

SUMMARY

Restorative justice is a movement within criminal justice that draws from a conception of justice as personal rather than impersonal. This article offers a definition of restorative justice and describes its hallmark programs: victim offender mediation, conferencing, circles, restitution, and community service. It explores the differences between restorative justice and contemporary criminal justice, including their relative strengths. Whereas criminal justice derives from an impersonal conception of justice, restorative justice draws from a personal understanding. Differences between the two views of justice are described, and a brief survey of history and cultures demonstrates that personal conceptions of justice have played, and continue to play, significant roles in shaping societies' responses to crime.     

Restorative Justice

Abstract

One of the most popular criminal justice paradigms is restorative justice. Restorative justice is victim-centered and focuses on repairing the damage individuals and communities suffer as a result of a criminal act. Uncoerced apologies and remorse for the offending behavior and the victim are important features of restorative justice. However, the criminal justice system and the public eschew principal features of restorative justice. For example, the law coerces apology and remorse. Moreover, the courtroom has become, for the most part, a place for victims, and sometimes judges to attack, demean, ridicule, and disparage defendantsall antithetical to restorative justice. The omnipresent expectation for an offender to unilaterally accept total responsibility for the crime, apologize to the victim, and express remorse for the crime undermines the core objectives of restorative justice and obscures significant social and legal problems.     

Donald R. Cressey: An Intellectual Portrait of a Criminologist

The late Donald R. Cressey (1919–1987) was a central figure in twentieth century American criminology. A distinctive feature of criminology since the 1930s has been the dominance of sociology among the various disciplines studying crime and criminal justice. Cressey's contributions to the sociology of crime and delinquency came from his teaching, scholarship, and involvement in criminal justice policy. He was best known for his carrying on the tradition of Edwin Sutherland in taking Sutherland's criminology textbook through many revised editions after Sutherland's passing and for his pioneering, innovative contributions to the study of organized crime, prisons, and criminological theory. He also made central and lasting contributions to the sociology of criminal law and white collar crime. His ideas in each of these areas are reviewed to produce a portrait or profile of what he added to criminology, to remind those who know it already and to introduce it to those who may not.     

THE REHABILITATION EFFECT OF PUNISHMENT

The putatively beneficial effect of punishment on criminal offenders is examined by estimating a logistic specification of a two-period model of optimal participation in illegitimate and legitimate activities. Estimates are obtained utilizing a sample of parolees released from all adult correctional institutions in the United States during 1972. The conclusion would seem to be that incarceration is not substantially effective in rehabilitation efforts and may even have a result opposite to that intended: increased punishment may increase optimal participation in crime.     

Explaining the United States’ Penal Exceptionalism: Political,Economic, and Social Factors

In this review, I examine explanations for why the United States is a world leader in its use of imprisonment. I first outline cross‐national trends in incarceration and then evaluate the state of the literature and empirical evidence for why the United States is more punitive than other advanced industrialized nations. I argue a confluence of political, economic, and social factors distinct to the United States context are implicated in the punitive turn in the 1970s. Specifically, United States’ penal exceptionalism is the result of (1) a shift of criminal justice policy from the judicial to the legislative branch of government; (2) political responses to social and economic changes including deindustrialization and the upheaval of race relations in the 1960s; and (3) a weak welfare state. These changes stand in stark contrast to the dynamics of criminal justice policymaking among comparable nations. However, there is a need for more comparative research on the topic, as understanding the mechanism behind the stabilization or decrease of penal populations in other countries may better elucidate the reasons for America’s divergence from international trends.     

Building from the Ground Up

SUMMARY

In an era of low crime rates and high imprisonment rates, the role of communities in producing safety and justice is open for critical reexamination. This article suggests that community resiliency is an unexplored factor in the recent drop in violent crime rates, and that community capacity is adversely affected by imprisonment policies, creating critical questions about the ability of community organizations to engage in partnerships on crime and justice topics. Drawing lessons from several community policing experiments, this article outlines a possible role for community engagement in reducing the current reliance on incarceration as a response to crime.     

Watching the detectives: crime programming, fear of crime, and attitudes about the criminal justice system

Research demonstrates a complex relationship between television viewing and fear of crime. Social critics assert that media depictions perpetuate the dominant cultural ideology about crime and criminal justice. This article examines whether program type differentially affects fear of crime and perceptions of the crime rate. Next, it tests whether such programming differentially affects viewers' attitudes about the criminal justice system, and if these relationships are mediated by fear. Results indicated that fear mediated the relationship between viewing nonfictional shows and lack of support for the justice system. Viewing crime dramas predicted support for the death penalty, but this relationship was not mediated by fear. News viewership was unrelated to either fear or attitudes. The results support the idea that program type matters when it comes to understanding people's fear of crime and their attitudes about criminal justice.     

“Big Brother’s Bigger Brother”: The Visual Politics of (Counter) Surveillance in Baltimore

In 2016, without the knowledge of its citizens, Baltimore City Police deployed a military aerial surveillance technology called Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI), which can track the movements of every person in public view over the entire city. Though the trial of the “spy plane,” as the program was dubbed, quickly ended in scandal, organizers from Baltimore’s low-income minority neighborhoods successfully rebooted the program in 2020, this time framing WAMI partly as a tool of “sousveillance” (watching “from below”) that can track the movements of police officers. The paper shows how organizers “rebranded” WAMI around two conceptions of sousveillance—“citizen-centered” and “state-centered”—creating an unlikely coalition of supporters from both pro- and anti-policing sides of the criminal justice reform debate. But while the renewed program has vowed to be a “Big Brother” to the state, it will continue to be used for traditional surveillance, raising troubling questions about privacy. The article sheds light on the politics of watching and being watched in the era of technology-driven criminal justice reform.     

The disability bias: understanding the context of hate in comparison with other minority populations

During recent years ‘disability hate crime’ has become a major political and criminal justice concern due to a number of high-profile murders in the United Kingdom. The aim of this article is to compare disability-motivated hate crimes with other hate crimes motivated by homophobic or racist bias. This study employs a quantitative methodology utilising data collected by the ARCH hate crime recording system over a 10-year period (2005–2015). The data findings illustrate a number of variations concerning incidents reported by disabled people regarding violence and threatening behaviour, when compared with incidents motivated by race/faith or homophobic bias.