The Use of Incarceration in the United States

The past two decades have produceda profound increase in imprisonment in theUnited States, resulting in a prison populationof two million and expenditures of over $35billion annually on corrections, while otherimportant government services are underfunded. Imprisonment is highest for minority maleslargely because of the War on Drugs, which hasalso dramatically increased the incarcerationof women and created nearly 1.5 millionchildren having a parent incarcerated. Inresponse to this trend, the American Society ofCriminology (ASC) directed the ASC NationalPolicy Committee (NPC) to draft a policy paperon the incarceration issue. This articleexplains the main ideas, themes, andrecommendations of the full policy paper. Itanalyzes the sources and effects of theincreased use of imprisonment, drawingattention to the negative effects of excessiveincarceration. The paper and itsrecommendations reflect a concern that the ASCneeds to set a research agenda that isindependent of the federal government andconventional wisdom. The NPC hopes this paperwill stimulate a healthy and much overduedebate on the role of the ASC in public policyin general, and the merits of widespreadincarceration in particular.     

Disconnect in the Hollow State: The Pivotal Role of Organizational Capacity in Community-Based Development Organizations

Partnerships between government and community-based development organizations (CBDOs) have proven to be central to long-term neighborhood revitalization in many settings. These successes, coupled with the political popularity of community-driven projects, have stimulated further reliance on this approach. Unfortunately, scant research has been done on the organizational capacity of local community-based development organizations to administer these projects. It may be that many of them do not have the capacity to do the job.
This article examines elements of organizational capacity in CBDOs developing affordable housing in a United States-Mexico border community. Evidence of capacity was limited, raising serious questions about the implementation of public policy in the hollow state. In their haste to contract with not-for-profits to create affordable housing, government officials may not be considering the serious possibility that CBDOs do not have the capacity to deliver services or effectively administer projects over time.     

Revolution's Legacy: Residual Effects on Nicaraguan Participation and Attitudes in Comparative Context

A longstanding scholarly debate asks what lasting changes revolution makes in political attitudes and behaviors. Scholars generally regard revolution as transformative, but research on revolution's behavioral and cultural legacies after transfers of state power has been limited. This study explores revolution's residual impact on individuals' electoral participation, civil society engagement, and social capital by comparing postrevolutionary Nicaraguans to their Central American neighbors. Using survey data on comparable samples of urban Central Americans, the research found higher electoral engagement in Nicaragua than in the other nations in the region that experienced major insurgencies but not revolution. It also found among Nicaraguans greater support for civil disobedience, greater school and union activism, and more frequent leftist political identification. Although revolution did leave residual effects in Nicaragua, more significant influence appears to have decayed rapidly.     

Violent behavior in female inmates: possible predictors

Research findings have been equivocal regarding the relationship between experiencing trauma and exhibiting violent behavior in women. This study seeks to determine predictors of violent behavior in female inmates utilizing various conceptualizations of traumatic experiences. Results indicate a significant univariate relationship between experiencing more frequent physical abuse experiences, both interpersonal and noninterpersonal types of trauma, and both physical and sexual assaults with frequency of engagement in violent behavior. The regression model explained approximately 21.0% of the variance in violent behavior. Furthermore, frequency of physical abuse experiences was a significant predictor of frequency of engagement in violent behavior and explained 12.74% of unique variance. These results suggest that the frequency of physical abuse experiences may serve as a risk factor for women's violent behavior. Although more research is needed, it appears that addressing the potential for violence in women who experience abuse may be an appropriate target of treatment.