Prisons as Self-Regulating Systems - A Comparison of Historical Patterns in California for Male and Female Offenders

• NCJ Number: 92602
• Journal: Law and Society Review Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Dated: (1983) Pages: 547-586
• Author(s): R A Berk; S L Messinger; D Rauma; J E Berecochea
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 40 pages
• Grant Number(s): 78-NI-AX-0093; SES81-10251
• Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation; National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1981 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology.

Annotation

Building on our earlier work testing the stability of punishment hypothesis, we here combine the general modeling strategy previously employed with more behaviorally grounded models of actors' expectations and preferences.

Abstract

Using these tools, we model the historical attempts by criminal justice actors in California to balance prison admissions and releases in an equilibrating manner. We find that there have been efforts to regulate the flow of individuals through prison and that, contrary to expectations, these processes are not very different for males and females. (Publisher abstract)