The politics of punishing

Abstract

This article asks why some American states are more likely to rely on imprisonment in response to crime than others. Employing comparative historical methodology it brings new kinds of data to address contested questions in the field. In three case studies, it examines archival material, including citizens' letters to political leaders, transcripts from townhall meetings, internal government reports, public testimony; and it uses extensive secondary sources, including statistical data and political histories to tease out complex causal processes of crime control policy formation and its impact on imprisonment patterns. Analyzing evidence both temporarily and spatially, the article introduces a new account of American imprisonment variation based on the democratic process itself.