Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice pp 2074–2081Cite as

Historical and Comparative Perspectives on Incarceration

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:

  • 187 Accesses

Overview

The US incarceration rate is exceptional in a number of respects. First, the USA has the highest number of people imprisoned (over two million) and the highest imprisonment rate in the world (730 per 100,000 national population) as of 2010. The number of people imprisoned in the USA is almost double that of China, which is ranked second on this measure, and more than ten times that of most Western countries. Other countries ranked highest in the number of people incarcerated include Russia, Brazil, India, and Iran (International Centre for Prison Statistics 2013). There is certainly something paradoxical about the USA, a democratic country that is a global hallmark of freedom and civil liberties, imprisoning more citizens than authoritarian regimes that are often criticized for human rights abuses.

This US exceptionalism has received a great deal of attention in the criminal justice literature as researchers have tried to explain mass incarceration in the USA in terms of...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   4,350.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   4,999.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading and References

  • Beckett K, Western B (2001) Governing social marginality: welfare, incarceration, and the transformation of state policy. Punishm Soc 3(1):43–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu P (1999) Rethinking the state: genesis and structure of the bureaucratic field. In: Steinmetz G (ed) State culture: state formation after the cultural turn. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavadino M, Dignan J (2006) Penal systems: a comparative approach. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Christie N (2000) Crime control as industry. Routledge Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • DeMichele M, Janoski T (2010) A theory of cross-national incarceration rate variation: three worlds of western punishment, 1960–2002. American Society of Criminology, San Francisco, California

    Google Scholar 

  • Esping-Anderson G (1990) The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Garland D (2001) The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary society. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser EL, Shleifer A (2002) Legal origins. Q J Econ 117:1193–1229

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayek F (1960) The constitution of liberty. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • International Centre for Prison Statistics (2013) World prison brief. http://www.prisonstudies.org/info/worldbrief/wpb_stats.php?area=all&category=wb_poprate. Accessed 17 May 2013

  • Jacobs D, Kleban R (2003) Political institutions, minorities, and punishment: a pooled cross national analysis of imprisonment rates. Soc Forces 82:725–755

    Google Scholar 

  • Langbein J (2005) Origins of the adversary criminal trial. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman GR (2010) Introduction. In: Newman GR (ed) Crime and punishment around the world, vol 4. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara

    Google Scholar 

  • Rusche G, Kirchheimer O (1968) Punishment and social structure. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamatel JP (2006) Incorporating socio-historical context and temporal variation into quantitative cross-national criminology. Int J Comp Appl Crim Justice 30(2):177–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton J (2000) Imprisonment and social classification in five common law democracies, 1955-1985. Am J Sociol 106(2):350–386

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton J (2004) The political economy of imprisonment in affluent western democracies, 1960-1990. Am Sociol Rev 69(2):170–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Tonry M (2011) Punishing race: a continuing American dilemma. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (2011) 2011 global study on homicide: trends, contexts, data. http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/Homicide/Globa_study_on_homicide_2011_web.pdf. Accessed 17 May 2013

  • Weber M (1967) Max Weber on law in economy and society. Edited and annotated by Max Rheinstein. Simon and Schuster, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Western B (2006) Punishment and inequality in America. Russell Sage, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitman J (2003) Harsh justice: criminal punishment and the widening divide between American and Europe. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Justice Center for Research, Department of Sociology, Penn State University, 328 Pond Laboratory, University Park, 16801, PA, USA

    Matthew DeMichele

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Kentucky, 1571 Patterson Office Tower, Lexington, 40511, KY, USA

    Janet P. Stamatel

Authors
  1. Matthew DeMichele
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Janet P. Stamatel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew DeMichele .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  2. VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  3. Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    David Weisburd

  4. Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Weisburd

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

DeMichele, M., Stamatel, J.P. (2014). Historical and Comparative Perspectives on Incarceration. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_498

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_498

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation