Incarceration Nation: How the United States Became the Most Punitive Democracy in the World

The rise of mass incarceration in the United States is one of the most critical outcomes of the last half-century. Incarceration Nation offers the most compelling explanation of this outcome to date. This book combines in-depth analysis of Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon's presidential campaigns with sixty years of data analysis. The result is a sophisticated and highly accessible picture of the rise of mass incarceration. In contrast to conventional wisdom, Peter K. Enns shows that during the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, politicians responded to an increasingly punitive public by pushing policy in a more punitive direction. The book also argues that media coverage of rising crime rates helped fuel the public's punitiveness. Equally as important, a decline in public punitiveness in recent years offers a critical window into understanding current bipartisan calls for criminal justice reform.

Author: Peter K. Enns
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 03/21/2016
Pages: 184
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.64lbs
Size: 9.11h x 6.04w x 0.47d
ISBN13: 9781316500613
ISBN10: 1316500616
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Penology
- Social Science | Criminology