Punishment And Crime: The Limits Of Punitive Crime Control

Cover
Title
Copyright
Dedication
CONTENTS
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
The Scope of This Book
The Historical Context: Recent American Trends in Punishment
Trends in Public Opinion on Crime and Its Punishment
American Punishment Levels Compared to Other Nations
A Word About Meta-Analysis
2 Theory: The Mechanisms by Which Legal Punishment Might Reduce Crime
Theoretically Plausible Mechanisms by Which Legal Punishment Could Affect Crime
The Conditions Under Which Punishment Is Most Likely to Reduce Criminal Behavior
Nonlinearity of the Effects of Punishment—Threshold and Diminishing Returns Patterns
The Communication of the Risk of Legal Punishment to Prospective Offenders
3 Deterrence and the Rational Choice Model of Criminal Behavior: The Case of the Disappearing Theory
The Rational Choice Model
The Significance of Limits on Information
Weak or Invalid Criticisms of the RCM as Applied to the Deterrence Doctrine
Arguably Valid Criticisms of the Model
Stronger Criticisms of the Model
What Kinds of Human Behaviors Do Accord With the Rational Choice Model?
The Disappearing Theory
Is Street Crime “Rational” in the Sense of Yielding More Benefit Than Cost?
The Predictive Ability of the Rational Choice Model of Criminal Behavior
Conclusions
4 General Methodological Problems in Punishment Research
Common Methodological Problems of Macro-Level Studies
Common Methodological Problems of Individual-Level Studies
The Evolution of Research Methods on Deterrence
5 Individual-Level Research on General Deterrence: The Impact of Perceptions of Legal Risk on Criminal Behavior
Review Methods
Part I: Perceptual Deterrence Research
Factors That May Condition the Findings of Perceptual Deterrence Research
Perceptual Deterrence Findings and Methodological Artifacts
Part II: The Experiential Effect—The Impact of Criminal Behavior on Perceptions of Legal Risk
Chapter 5 Summary
6 Individual-level Research on the Effects of Punishment on Those Punished
Part I: The Impact of Experienced Punishment on Criminal Behavior
Part II: The Impact of Experienced Punishment on Perceptions of Future Punishment Risk
Chapter 6 Summary
7 Macro-Level Research on the Effect of Punishment Levels
Overall Macro-Level Findings
Macro-Level Findings by Decade of Publication
Macro-Level Findings by Location
Variations in Macro-Level Findings Based on Methodological Variations
Summary of Review of Macro-Level Research
Conclusions
8 The Impact of Capital Punishment on Murder Rates
The Issues
Findings on the Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment
Findings by Execution Risk Measures Used
Publication Discipline and Capital Punishment Deterrence Findings
Death Penalty Deterrence Findings by Unit of Analysis and Region
Research Design
The Effects of Publicity About Executions
The Use of Inappropriately Large Units of Analysis
Public Intolerance for Violence as a Confounding Variable
The Grogger Study of Daily Homicide Counts in California
The Hong-Kleck National Study of Daily Homicide Counts
Conclusions
9 Do Actual Levels of Punishment Affect Perceptions of Legal Risk?
Deterrence and Perceptions of Punishment
Perception-Reality Correspondence and Theories of Criminal Behavior
The Relevance of These Issues to Prior Research on Crime and Deterrence
The Kleck, Sever, Li, and Gertz Study
The Reaction to These Findings by Deterrence Doctrine Advocates
Do Highly Publicized Punishment Events Increase Deterrent Effects?
Do Policy “Experiments” Establish the Operation of Deterrence?
Is There a “Collective Wisdom” About Legal Risks?
Reinterpretation of Macro-Level Research in Light of the Absence of Any Macro-Level Association Between Perceptions of Punishment Risk and Actual Risk Levels
Conclusions
Appendix 9.1
10 The Incapacitative Effects of Imprisonment
Simulation Studies
A Cross-Individual Alternative to Simulation Studies
Can an Effective Selective Incapacitation Sentencing Policy Be Implemented?
Macro-Level Studies of the Impact of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates
Are There Cross-State Displacement and Free Rider Effects?
The Omitted Variables Problem—Failing to Control for Public Intolerance for Crime
Empirical Studies of the Impact of the Size of the Prison Population on Crime Rates
Variation in the Effects of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates
Problems in Quantifying the Crime Prevention Benefits of Incarceration
Diminishing Returns: Have We Passed the Point Where Further Incarceration Is No Longer Cost-Effective?
Conclusions
11 Crime-Increasing Effects of Punishment
Some Possible Crime-Increasing Effects of Punishment on the Person Punished
Empirical Evidence on Crime-Increasing Effects of Legal Punishment on Those Punished
Crime-Increasing Effects of Punishment on the Families of Punished Persons
Effects of Mass Incarceration on the Communities of the Punished
Diversion of Resources From Other Crime-Reducing Efforts
Conclusions
12 Conclusions
Premature Good News
Why Did Scholars Reach This Conclusion?
Salvaging the Deterrence Doctrine as a Guide to Crime Control Policy
Should Scholars Even Draw Policy Conclusions From Research?
Summary of the Book’s Findings
A Compact Summary of Some Lessons That Crime and Punishment Research Has to Teach Us
What Can Be Done? How Might Excessive Reliance on Legal Punishment Be Reduced?
Effective Crime Reduction Alternatives to Punishment
Do Americans Support Nonpunitive Alternatives?
Index