Penal controls and social controls: Toward a theory of American penal exceptionalism

Abstract

<jats:p> This article argues that to explain American penal exceptionalism, we have to consider America’s exceptional levels of punishment together with America’s exceptional levels of violence and disorder, while understanding both of these as outcomes of America’s distinctive political economy. After specifying the multiple respects in which American penality is a comparative outlier, the article develops a new theorization of modes of penal action that reveals the extent to which the US has come to rely on penal controls rather than other kinds of punishment. This over-reliance on penal controls is viewed as an adaptation to the weakness of non-penal social controls in American communities. These social control deficits are, in turn, attributed to America’s ultra-liberal political economy, which is seen as having detrimental effects for the functioning of families and communities, tending to reduce the effectiveness of informal social controls and to generate high levels of neighborhood disorganization and violence. The same political economy limits the capacity of government to respond to these structurally generated problems using the social policy interventions characteristic of more fully developed welfare states. The result is a marked bias toward the use of penal controls. </jats:p>

Racialized Religion and Judicial Injustice: How Whiteness and Biblicist Christianity Intersect to Promote a Preference for (Unjust) Punishment

“…Compared to other Western nations, America's judicial system is both exceptionally punitive and demonstrably unjust to historically disadvantaged racial minorities (Alexander 2012; Garland 2019; Muller 2012; Wacquant 2010). Though researchers have repeatedly documented how the realities of American punitiveness and judicial injustice are durably structured into America's institutions (Looman and Carl 2015; Ray 2019; Western 2006), they are also sustained and reproduced by ideologies within the broader population that incline Americans toward punishing violators, particularly if they are outside the existing racial hegemon (Frost 2010; Green, Staerkle, and Sears 2006; Hogan, Chiricos, and Gertz 2005; Unnever 2013).…”

Toward a political sociology of privatized punishment: Contestation, state structures, and stratification

“…Here, we briefly note that privatized punishment may be a fruitful case to examine through the lenses of political economy (Garland, 2020;Selman & Leighton, 2010), race (Hallett, 2006), industrial relations (Page, 2011a), historical sociology (Muller, 2018), or human rights (Center for International Human Rights, 2020). 3 Though not often viewed as a state theorist, Durkheim discussed the state extensively in Professional Ethics and Civic Morals.…”

“…Space constraints do not permit a comprehensive survey of all possible lines of political sociology‐inspired inquiry. Here, we briefly note that privatized punishment may be a fruitful case to examine through the lenses of political economy (Garland, 2020; Selman & Leighton, 2010), race (Hallett, 2006), industrial relations (Page, 2011a), historical sociology (Muller, 2018), or human rights (Center for International Human Rights, 2020).…”

Leaving the Shining City on a Hill: A Plea for Rediscovering Comparative Criminal Justice Policy in the United States

“…The notion of American exceptionalism within the domain of criminal justice and punishment grew out of the general understanding of the term and can be defined as the tendency for U.S. penal policies and practices to diverge sharply from those of other developed industrialized Western countries (K. R. Reitz, 2018). American exceptionalism has been often invoked, particularly in the post-mid-1970s era: Not only did it become a mainstay of death penalty proponents (see Steiker, 2002), but eventually it also came to characterize all of the major areas of the U.S. penal state-from policing to prosecution, from sentencing to imprisonment, and from community supervision to collateral consequences of conviction (Garland, 2020). At least for some, American exceptionalism embodies not just the idea that America does things differently but that it does so proudly, even defiantly.…”

“…R. Reitz, 2018). American exceptionalism has been often invoked, particularly in the post-mid-1970s era: Not only did it become a mainstay of death penalty proponents (see Steiker, 2002), but eventually it also came to characterize all of the major areas of the U.S. penal state—from policing to prosecution, from sentencing to imprisonment, and from community supervision to collateral consequences of conviction (Garland, 2020). At least for some, American exceptionalism embodies not just the idea that America does things differently but that it does so proudly, even defiantly.…”