A Panel Analysis of Legal Culture, Political Economics, and Punishment Among 15 Western Countries, 1960–2010

Abstract

I extend Sutton's political economy of punishment thesis by including a composite measure of legal and criminal justice practices that are hypothesized to be related to incarceration rates. I test the association between a punishment regime-type variable composed of the nature of prosecutorial discretion, judicial power, and the nature of lay participation with incarceration rates in 15 Western countries between 1960 and 2010. The effects of the punishment regime variable are tested in several time series cross-section models that correct for autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity and include the effects of the leading political-economic correlates of punishment and homicide rates. The results show consistent significant findings for the punishment regime-type variable, union power, and corporatist bargaining, with mixed support for political party power, inflation, and unemployment rates. These findings provide evidence for the existence of multiple cultures of Western punishment. In the end, I suggest that multidisciplinary cross-national partnerships incorporating researchers and governmental entities are needed to develop large comparative criminal justice databases to enhance understanding of comparative crime and justice.

The Iron Cage of Development: A Cross‐National Analysis of Incarceration, 2000 – 2015

“…Prior work shows that prison rates do vary substantially between wealthy and less developed countries (Barclay et al 2001; Kangaspunta et al 1998). However, studies examining the effect of national income on incarceration produce conflicting results, reporting negative (D’Amico and Williamson 2015; Joshi 2012), positive (Jacobs and Kleban 2003; Ruddell and Urbina 2004), and non‐significant (DeMichele 2014; Ruddell and Urbina 2007) associations. We suspect that prior models may be misspecified, as the relationship between these two measures is potentially curvilinear.…”

“…This is far greater than the corresponding cross‐national variation in crime rates, which suggests the importance of other factors for shaping the size of prison populations around the world (Ruddell and Urbina 2007). Nevertheless, studies usually include homicide rates in their models as a proxy for criminal behavior and uniformly find a positive effect on incarceration rates (D’Amico and Williamson 2015, 2019a; DeMichele 2014; Jacobs and Kleban 2003; Neapolitan 2001; Ruddell and Urbina 2004, 2007; Sutton 2000, 2004).…”

“…However, the hypothesis does not fare well empirically. While several studies do find a positive association (D’Amico and Williamson 2015; Sutton 2000), more tend to show that unemployment is unrelated to prison outcomes (DeMichele 2014; Jacobs and Kleban 2003; Neapolitan 2001; Ruddell 2005).…”

Electronic Monitoring: It Is a Tool, Not a Silver Bullet

“…Comparative researchers can identify evidence‐based practices as long as contextual factors are considered during any policy transfers (DeMichele, ). Identifying policy implications from Andersen and Andersen's () study requires considering them within an agency's overall supervision framework to fit with agency missions, goals, resources, and staffing capacities.…”

The punitive consequences of organizational structures in England, France and the United States

“… See Neapolitan (2001),Sutton (2000Sutton ( , 2004, andRuddell (2005) for thorough surveys of the research that empirically investigates these standard theoretical frameworks.3Durkheim (1895) andWeber (1922) were among the first to posit crime and imprisonment as shaped by socio-institutional structures.Rusche and Kirchheimer (1939) influencedFoucault (1975), who popularized this perspective and research agenda.4 See alsoSpamann (2010) andDeMichele (2013DeMichele ( , 2014.at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137418000127Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core.…”