NCJ Number
107715
Journal
American Sociological Review Volume: 52 Issue: 5 Dated: (October 1987) Pages: 612-630
Date Published
1987
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Most explanations of official social control point either toward reform movements or the imperatives of the social system as dominantly influencing imprisonment rates, with little attempt to integrate these distinct casual processes.
Abstract
This study aims to disentangle these affects by arguing that the strategic behavior of official state actors plays an intervening role in the punishment process that determines the relative salience of reform and systems effects. The empirical analysis focuses on the expansion of prisons and jails in the American states between 1880 and the early 1920's. Treating reform in terms of the adoption of probation, parole, and indeterminate sentencing legislation, and treating the social system as a store of resources likely to affect institutional expansion, the analysis pursues a series of dynamic and interactive models. The findings support the argument that reforms introduced discretion into the social control system and allowed official actors greater freedom to adjust their behavior to the shifting bureaucratic and political constraints. (Author abstract)