The prison and the gallows : the politics of mass incarceration in America

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Title:

Author:

Gottschalk, Marie.

ISBN:

9780521864275

9780521682916

Personal Author:

Gottschalk, Marie.

Publication Information:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Physical Description:

xiii, 451 p. ; 24 cm.

Series:

Cambridge studies in criminology

Cambridge studies in criminology (Cambridge University Press)

General Note:

Formerly CIP.

Contents:

The prison and the gallows : the construction of the carceral state in America -- Law, order, and alternative explanations -- Unlocking the past : the nationalization and politicization of law and order -- The carceral state and the welfare state : the comparative politics of victims -- Not the usual suspects : feminists, women's groups, and the anti-rape movement -- The battered women's movement and the development of penal policy -- From rights to revolution : prison activism and penal policy -- Capital punishment, the courts, and the early origins of the carceral state, 1920s-1960s -- The power to punish : the political development of capital punishment, 1972 to today -- Whither the carceral state.

Abstract:

"Over the past three decades the United States has built a carceral state that is unprecedented among Western countries and in U.S. history. Nearly one in fifty people, excluding children and the elderly, is incarcerated today, a rate unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. What are some of the main political forces that explain this unprecedented reliance on mass imprisonment? Specifically, why didn't the construction of the carceral state face more political opposition? Throughout American history, crime and punishment have been central features of American political development. This book examines the development of four key movements - the victims' movement, the women's movement, the prisoners' rights movement, and opponents of the death penalty - that mediated the construction of the carceral state in important ways.

It shows how punitive penal policies were forged by particular social movements and interest groups within the constraints of larger institutional structures and historical developments that distinguish the United States from other Western countries."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Prisons -- United States.

Imprisonment -- Government policy -- United States.

Capital punishment -- United States.

Prisoners -- Civil rights -- United States.

Geographic Term:

United States -- Politics and government.

Electronic Access:

Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip062/2005031115.html
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0633/2005031115-d.html

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Summary

The United States has built a carceral state that is unprecedented among Western countries and in US history. Nearly one in 50 people, excluding children and the elderly, is incarcerated today, a rate unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. What are some of the main political forces that explain this unprecedented reliance on mass imprisonment? Throughout American history, crime and punishment have been central features of American political development. This 2006 book examines the development of four key movements that mediated the construction of the carceral state in important ways: the victims' movement, the women's movement, the prisoners' rights movement, and opponents of the death penalty. This book argues that punitive penal policies were forged by particular social movements and interest groups within the constraints of larger institutional structures and historical developments that distinguish the United States from other Western countries.