NCJ Number
97058
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 64 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall-Winter 1984) Pages: 5-15
Date Published
1984
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The greater use of incarceration by Southern and Western States than by Northeastern and Midwestern States is analyzed.
Abstract
Two indicators of prison use -- per capita prison population and prison population as a percentage of all convicted offenders in custody -- bear out the same trend. These data suggest that residents of certain regions of the country hold more punitive attitudes toward offenders than do residents of other regions. Quantitative studies show no correlation between prison population and crime rate. In addition, efforts to relate prison use to demographic and resource variables have also proven ineffective. In a study of political cultures, Daniel Elazar has identified three types of political cultures with different prison use practices. The traditionalistic political cultures of the South and to a lesser extent, the West, rely heavily on prisons in their approach to crime control. The moralistic political cultures of the Northeast and upper Midwest apparently use imprisonment the least. The individualistic political cultures scattered throughout the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Western States fall somewhere in between the two extremes. The powerful association between types of political culture and prison use suggests the need to examine the origins of the expensive and perhaps unnecessary use of prisons in the South and West. Tables and a list of 18 references are provided.