Did Mass Incarceration Make Us Feel Safer

Andrea Corradi, Eric P. Baumer

Research output: Contribution to conferencePresentation

Abstract

Presentation given at the American Society of Criminology Conference.

In the latter part of the 20th century, incarceration rates increased dramatically in the United States, a phenomenon widely referred to as “mass incarceration.” A substantial body of research has evaluated the impact of mass incarceration on a variety of outcomes including crime rates, population health, and community social organization. Yet, a fundamental question about the consequences of mass imprisonment has yet to be addressed: Did it make Americans feel safer? The inattention to this question is surprising given that much of the legislative and public policy action that facilitated mass incarceration was predicated on the idea of reducing fear among the public. To address this gap, we examine the impact of mass incarceration on fear of crime by integrating data on fear from the General Social Survey (GSS) with data on county incarceration patterns from the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) and data on other relevant community conditions from a variety of sources. The results of our study make an important contribution to knowledge about the impact of mass incarceration and about the structural sources of fear in America.
Original languageAmerican English
StatePublished - Nov 15 2019
EventAmerican Society of Criminology Conference - Chicago, IL
Duration: Nov 20 2021 → …

Conference

ConferenceAmerican Society of Criminology Conference
Period11/20/21 → …

Disciplines

  • Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • Sociology
  • Criminology

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