Inequality, Crime, And Social Control by George S Bridges

Author:George S Bridges [Bridges, George S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9780429990526
Google: e3NgDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 40000106
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

Scope of Previous Studies

Almost all of the empirical research published in recent years on sex differences in punishment has focused on the differential treatment of individual criminal defendants processed within a single jurisdiction or court. Analyses done at this level are unable to identify the full effects of such factors as (1) statewide sentencing laws or mental health policies regarding the institutionalization of the mentally ill and (2) areal or regional levels of social inequality on imprisonment practices. Nevertheless, areal characteristics have significant effects on rates of imprisonment, above and beyond the characteristics of individual defendants. For example, state parole policies and laws governing the sentencing of chronic or “habitual” criminal offenders yield pronounced black/white disparities in imprisonment across states and regions of the country (see, e.g., Bridges and Crutchfield 1988). Similarly, regional or state levels of social and economic inequality influence rates of imprisonment, independent of areal rates of serious and violent crime (Bridges et al. 1987; Bridges and Crutchfield 1988).

Although many of the more recent studies reveal pronounced differences in the treatment of men and women accused of crimes, there is confusion over the effects of major state characteristics on these differences. Factors such as state sentencing laws, practices of hospitalizing the mentally ill, and differences in the social standing of men and women may have differential effects on the imprisonment of men and women, causing excessively lenient dispositions for one group or excessively severe dispositions for another (Davis 1969). Further, no studies known to the authors specify the process by which legal or social characteristics of states are associated with differences in male and female rates of imprisonment.

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