The problem of punitiveness.
Item
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Title
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The problem of punitiveness.
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Identifier
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AAI3144095
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identifier
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3144095
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Creator
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Frost, Natasha A.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Todd R. Clear
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Criminology and Penology
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Abstract
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Over the past several decades, punishment policy in the United States has taken what many would describe as a decidedly punitive turn. The literature documenting, theorizing, and empirically assessing the contours of increasing punitiveness is vast. Although the United States has engaged in a full-scale expansion of punishment across a wide variety of potential sanctions, imprisonment, as one of the most visible and exclusionary punishment practices, has received most of the attention. The United States imprisonment rate is currently the highest in the world and far exceeds that of comparable Western European nations. Although the U.S. has a reputation as being among the most punitive nations, there is a great deal of variation in imprisonment across the states. In terms of imprisonment, some states actually look more like Western European countries than they do their fellow American states. Although many have addressed the substantial state-level variation in imprisonment practices, most have done so by reference to imprisonment rates per capita.;In this dissertation, I argue that there is more than one way to respond punitively and that the imprisonment rate ultimately reflects the cumulative outcome of two different punitive approaches. I further argue that there is vast state-level variation across the different dimensions of punitiveness and that imprisonment rate analyses likely conceal these differences. Using state-level imprisonment data drawn from the 1990, 1995, and 2000 National Corrections Reporting Program, I empirically explore variations in punitiveness across dimensions and states and demonstrate that the way in which punitiveness is measured makes a substantial difference to state-level punitiveness rankings. The analyses illustrate that some of the least punitive states by reference to imprisonment rates are among the most punitive by reference to one of the other punitiveness measures. Moreover, it appears that, in some instances, states that have comparable imprisonment rates might be pursuing different punitive strategies. I conclude by discussing the reasons for reliance on imprisonment rates in empirical analyses, the limitations of the alternate measures, and the implications of the findings.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
