Test of the Stability of Punishment Hypothesis - The Case of California, 1851-1970

• NCJ Number: 80799
• Journal: American Sociological Review Volume: 46 Issue: 6 Dated: (December 1981) Pages: 805-829
• Author(s): R A Berk; D Rauma; S L Messinger; T F Cooley
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 25 pages
• Grant Number(s): 78-NI-AX-0093
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In this paper, we address the 'Stability of Punishment Hypothesis' with data from California for the period from the opening of the prison system in 1851 to 1970. The Stability of Punishment Hypothesis is formulated through recent modeling developments in macroeconomics, with which the presence of equilibrating tendencies can be explicitly represented, and for the first time direct tests are undertaken. No evidence for the hypothesis is found.

Abstract

Building on the works of Emile Durkheim, a number of scholars have claimed that, for a given society over time and in the absence of major societal upheavals, the proportion of people subjected to punishment by the state closely approximates a constant. (Author abstract)