NCJ Number
232486
Journal
Journal of Crime and Justice Volume: 33 Issue: 2 Dated: 2010 Pages: 63-94
Date Published
2010
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This study examined the association between the rate of surplus value and the United States incarceration rate for the period 1977 through 2004.
Abstract
This article reassesses the relationship between the rate of surplus value and the rate of imprisonment in the United States. Prior studies of this relationship indicated that the rate of surplus value, which measures the marginalization, exploitation and alienation of the labor force, and the rate of imprisonment were statistically related. These studies, however, focused on data from the 1950s through the 1970s. The present article updates this analysis by focusing on the time period from 1977 through 2004. The results support those from earlier studies, lending additional support to radical explanations for the expansion of formal social control such as imprisonment. The article also offers an elaboration of the radical economic underpinnings of this explanation, as well as various radical explanations of incarceration. Further, the implications for political economic theories of punishment derived from post-Fordist economic perspectives, the politics of punishment, and agency perspectives on punishment are also discussed. Tables, figure, notes, and references (Published Abstract)