This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Mears, D. P. Articles by Gertz, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Housing for the "Worst of the Worst" Inmates: Public Support for Supermax Prisons

Florida State University, Tallahassee

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dmears{at}fsu.edu.

	Abstract

Despite concerns whether supermaximum security prisons violate human rights or prove effective, these facilities have proliferated in America over the past 25 years. This punishment—aimed at the "worst of the worst" inmates and involving 23-hr-per-day single-cell confinement with few privileges or services—has emerged despite little evidence that the public supports it. Based on public opinion survey data, this study identified the extent to which support exists for supermax prisons and so tested three interrelated hypotheses about variation in public views. The focal contention is that support can be linked to groups that are most concerned with symbolic threats, to those most embracing of a belief in individual agency, and to those who have had negative contacts with offenders. The article concludes with a discussion on implications for theory, research, and policy.

First published on February 6, 2009
Crime & Delinquency 2009, doi:10.1177/0011128708330851


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?