Incarceration

  • David Harding
  • Stephen Raphael
  • Joan Petersilia

Leaders: David Harding, Stephen Raphael, Joan Petersilia

Since the mid-1970s, the United States has experienced a precipitous rise in incarceration, with about 2.3 million U.S. adults now incarcerated in state and federal prisons. In recent years, there has been increasing pressure to wind down this commitment to mass imprisonment, and it’s accordingly important to study ways to reintegrate successfully. The Incarceration RG is tasked with monitoring and evaluating the relationship between poverty and sentencing, parole reform, probation, reintegration, and recidivism.

Poverty and the decline in prison population: Will the ongoing decline in California’s prison population bring about an increase in homelessness, mental health service use, and other poverty-relevant outcomes? This line of research will reveal whether ongoing declines in incarceration should be coordinated with increased funding for programs that may substitute for incarceration.

Arrests, race, and poverty: Is reducing arrests the only way to reduce criminal bookings (and the employment-reducing effects of such bookings)? There may be another way.

Incarceration - CPI Research

Title Author Media
The Mark of a Criminal Record Devah Pager

The Mark of a Criminal Record

Author: Devah Pager
Publisher: American Journal of Sociology
Date:
Race, Ethnicity, and Youth Perceptions of Criminal Injustice John Hagan, Carla Shedd, and Monique R. Payne

Race, Ethnicity, and Youth Perceptions of Criminal Injustice

Author: John Hagan, Carla Shedd, and Monique R. Payne
Publisher:
Date:
The Mark of a Criminal Record Devah Pager

The Mark of a Criminal Record

Author: Devah Pager
Publisher: American Journal of Sociology
Date:

incarceration - CPI Affiliates

Steven Raphael's picture Steven Raphael Professor of Public Policy; James D. Marver Chair in Public Policy
University of California, Berkeley
Devah Pager's picture Devah Pager Professor of Sociology, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Harvard University
Matthew Clair Assistant Professor of Sociology
Stanford University

Pages

Incarceration - Other Research

Title Author Media
Community and the Crime Decline: The Causal Effect of Local Nonprofits on Violent Crime Patrick Sharkey, Gerard Torrats-Espinosa, Delaram Takyar

Community and the Crime Decline: The Causal Effect of Local Nonprofits on Violent Crime

Author: Patrick Sharkey, Gerard Torrats-Espinosa, Delaram Takyar
Publisher: American Sociological Review
Date: 10/2017

Largely overlooked in the theoretical and empirical literature on the crime decline is a long tradition of research in criminology and urban sociology that considers how violence is regulated through informal sources of social control arising from residents and organizations internal to communities. In this article, we incorporate the “systemic” model of community life into debates on the U.S. crime drop, and we focus on the role that local nonprofit organizations played in the national decline of violence from the 1990s to the 2010s. Using longitudinal data and a strategy to account for the endogeneity of nonprofit formation, we estimate the causal effect on violent crime of nonprofits focused on reducing violence and building stronger communities. Drawing on a panel of 264 cities spanning more than 20 years, we estimate that every 10 additional organizations focusing on crime and community life in a city with 100,000 residents leads to a 9 percent reduction in the murder rate, a 6 percent reduction in the violent crime rate, and a 4 percent reduction in the property crime rate.

The Non-Market Benefits of Education and Ability James J. Heckman, John Eric Humphries, Gregory Veramendi

The Non-Market Benefits of Education and Ability

Author: James J. Heckman, John Eric Humphries, Gregory Veramendi
Publisher: NBER
Date: 10/2017

This paper analyzes the non-market benefits of education and ability. Using a dynamic model of educational choice we estimate returns to education that account for selection bias and sorting on gains. We investigate a range of non-market outcomes including incarceration, mental health, voter participation, trust, and participation in welfare. We find distinct patterns of returns that depend on the levels of schooling and ability. Unlike the monetary benefits of education, the benefits to education for many non-market outcomes are greater for low-ability persons. College graduation decreases welfare use, lowers depression, and raises self-esteem more for less-able individuals.

The Great Recession and State Criminal Justice Policy: Do Economic Hard Times Matter? Peter K. Enns, Delphia Shanks-Booth

The Great Recession and State Criminal Justice Policy: Do Economic Hard Times Matter?

Author: Peter K. Enns, Delphia Shanks-Booth
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Date: 12/2015

It costs a lot to maintain the world's highest incarceration rate. Did the largest economic shock since the Great Depression influence criminal justice policy and resulting incarcerations?

Citizenship, Democracy, and the Civic Reintegration of Criminal Offenders Christopher Uggen, Jeff Manza, Melissa Thompson

Citizenship, Democracy, and the Civic Reintegration of Criminal Offenders

Author: Christopher Uggen, Jeff Manza, Melissa Thompson
Publisher:
Date:

Incarceration - Multimedia

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