NCJ Number
171156
Date Published
1998
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This video portrays a lecture that describes the hypotheses, methodology, and preliminary findings of a study that is examining the impact of high levels of incarceration on the social, economic, and political characteristics of communities that are experiencing high levels of incarceration of its residents.
Abstract
The study is based on the theory that a criminal justice policy that emphasizes incarceration has an unanticipated impact on familial and community structures that are crucial to informal social controls potentially exerted by the families and communities vacated by incarcerated individuals. The three propositions being tested by this research are that incarceration reduces human capital in communities with high levels of incarceration, disrupts social ties in the community, and leads to an increase in social isolation from mainstream communities without high levels of incarceration. The study is being conducted in Leon County, Fla. The study thus far has featured a survey of citizens in various neighborhoods in Tallahassee. The survey has questions that measure informal social control, whether or not the person knows someone who has been incarcerated, and citizen attitudes toward the criminal justice system and the general political system that impacts their communities. Other data are being obtained on community incarceration rates and crime rates. Overall, the study is attempting to document the social, economic, and political impacts on communities of high incarceration rates. It is possible that a criminal justice policy that features incarceration may fuel criminogenic conditions that tend to perpetuate crime in the communities that experience the greatest impact of this policy. Audience questions following the lecture are included on the video