Criminal Justice Trends in the States: Causes and Consequences

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Criminal Justice Trends in the States Causes and
Consequences

• SGB(13), S(34)
•  
• Kubik, Jeffrey D., and John R. Moran. 2003.
  Lethal Elections Gubernatorial Politics and the
  Timing of Executions. Journal of Law and
  Economics Volume XLVI (1) 1-26.
•  
• Christopher Uggen Jeff Manza , Democratic
  Contraction? Political Consequences of Felon
  Disenfranchisement in the United States,American
  Sociological Review, Vol. 67, No. 6. (Dec.,
  2002), pp. 777-803.

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The Increasing Punitiveness of Criminal Justice
Policies (and Enforcement) across the States

• Increased use of the death penalty for capital
  offenses
• Increased use of incarceration for violent and
  (especially) nonviolent offenses
• Why has this happened?
• What are the consequences?

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The Death Penalty

• Furman v. Georgia, 1972
• Marshall and Brennan inherently cruel and
  unusual
• Douglas, Stewart and White employed in
  arbitrary, random, unfair, and discriminatory
  pattern.
• Supreme Court struck down all capital punishment
  laws as currently written
• 700 persons given permanent reprieve

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The Death Penalty

• Gregg v. Georgia, 1976
• Georgia rewrites death penalty laws to ensure
  fairness and uniformity of application
• series of cases involving other states
  effectively reinstated the death penalty

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The Death Penalty
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The Death Penalty
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The Death Penalty
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The Death Penalty
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The Death Penalty
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The Death Penalty

• Racial disparity
• 42 of death row inmates are black
• 53 black or Latino

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of Homicides Committed by Black Offender
Source Bureau of Justice Statistics
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The Death Penalty

• Racial disparity
• 42 of death row inmates are black
• 53 black or Latino
• "race of victim effect (David Baldus, 1980s)
• 50 of all murder victims are white
• 80 of all death row inmates executed were
  convicted of killing a white victim
• 80 of statistical studies find a significant
  race of victim effect
• Supreme Court refuses to recognize this evidence
  (1987, McKlesky vs. Kemp)

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The Death Penalty
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The Death Penalty

• Wrongly Convicted

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The Death Penalty

• Cruel punishment (8th Amendment)?
• Botched executions
• Lethal injection
• States with executions on hold

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The Death Penalty

• The role of politics?

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Incarceration in America

• History
• a recent phenomenon
• Colonial era fines, shame (stocks/cages),
  whipping, banishment (NYC, 1733-43 whipped and
  banished nearly every nonresident guilty of
  theft), hanging (for the most serious of crimes
  and repeat offenders)
• Imprisonment as a democratic reform
• 1786 PA eliminates death penalty for robbery and
  burglary other states follow example
• What to do with offenders? Incarceration

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Incarceration in America

• Federal prisons (12 of all prisoners 6 of all
  incarcerated) (12/31/2005)
• Three Prisons Act 1890
• Bureau of Prisons Act 1930
• Characteristics of Federal Prisoners
• 93 male
• 57.5 white
• 31.4 Hispanic
• 10 High security
• 43 medium or low
• 29 non-citizen
• Large of drug offenders

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Incarceration in America

• State Prisons (61)
• - 51 prison systems
• Characteristics of State Prisoners
• 94 male
• 47.7 white
• 14.7 Hispanic
• Larger of violent offenders

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Incarceration in America

• Local jails(33)
• misdemeanors, awaiting trial, short sentences
• majority are unconvicted
• 13 under "jail supervision" are not living in
  jail facility
• 89 male
• 41 White(NH)
• 42 Black, 16 Hispanic

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The Increasing Punitiveness of Criminal Justice
Policies across the States
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Explaining the Imprisonment Boom

• Objective conditions?

Source Yates and Fording, 2005. Journal of
Politics. Vol. 67 1099-1121.
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Explaining the Imprisonment Boom

• Objective conditions?

Source Bureau of Justice Statistics
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Explaining the Imprisonment Boom

• Increases in incarceration rates are in large
  part a result of changes in criminal justice
  policy
• Increase in the power/discretion of law
  enforcement (Supreme Court rulings)
• Increase in law enforcement effort
• Increase in the severity of criminal sentences

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Explaining the Imprisonment Boom

• Increasing the Severity of Criminal Sentences
• Sentencing reform
• The failure of the rehabilitative ideal
• Indeterminate vs. determinate sentencing
• Mandatory minimum sentences
• Three strikes laws

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Explaining the Imprisonment Boom

• The War on Drugs
• Began at the federal level in the 1970s

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Explaining the Imprisonment Boom

• The War on Drugs
• Spread to the states during the 1980s

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Consequences

• Effects on Crime debated
• Two types of effects
• 1. Incapacitation
• Weaknesses
• Only works to the extent that those imprisoned
  would be committing additional crimes.
• Replacement effect potentially applies to
  crime committed via groups or organizations (e.g.
  gangs)
• "Criminal Justice Funnel" Most offenders not
  arrested or imprisoned
• 2. Deterrent hard to measure

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Consequences

• Racial Disparity
• Voter disenfranchisement political effects
• Expense displaces other forms of social
  spending that may serve to reduce poverty/crime
  more effectively.
• Because of this, relatively little investment in
  post-release programs to prevent recidivism.
• Imprisonment may actually serve to increase crime
  by (1) imprisoning non-recidivists, and (2)
  turning them into hardened criminals
• Effects on family members
• Rise of the Prison Industrial Complex
  (political consequences?) (Private prisons 7)

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Racial Disparity in Prison Admissions
Source Rand
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Felony Disenfranchisement

• Current Disenfranchisement Laws (States)
• Christopher Uggen Jeff Manza , Democratic
  Contraction? Political Consequences of Felon
  Disenfranchisement in the United States,American
  Sociological Review, Vol. 67, No. 6. (Dec.,
  2002), pp. 777-803.
• Impact
• Policy process

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Voter Turnout Over TimeVoter-Eligible vs.
Voting Age Turnout Rates
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Felony Disenfranchisement
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Felony Disenfranchisement