Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Access Criminology and Criminal Justice journals now

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Crime & Delinquency
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tonry, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Why Are U.S. Incarceration Rates So High?

Michael Tonry

Most explanations of the unprecedented increase in American incarceration rates are inadequate. Crime rate increases, more punitive public attitudes, postmodernist angst, and cynical politics are all only part of the explanation. Those things characterize all Western countries; in some of these countries, imprisonment rates have long been stable or declining, and, where they are rising, absolute levels and rates of increase are dwarfed by those in America. The scale of the phenomenon is distinctly American. It arises partly from American moralism and partly from structural characteristics of American government that provide little insulation from emotions generated by moral panics and longterm cycles of tolerance and intolerance.

Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 45, No. 4, 419-437 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0011128799045004001
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journal of Research in Crime and DelinquencyHome page
J. D. Unnever, M. L. Benson, and F. T. Cullen
Public Support for Getting Tough on Corporate Crime: Racial and Political Divides
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, May 1, 2008; 45(2): 163 - 190.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Socioecon RevHome page
L. Kenworthy, R. Munch, and J. R. Sutton
Bruce Western, Punishment and Inequality in America. New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 2006
Socioecon. Rev., July 1, 2007; 5(3): 569 - 584.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Punishment SocietyHome page
A. W. Dzur and R. Mirchandani
Punishment and democracy: The role of public deliberation
Punishment Society, April 1, 2007; 9(2): 151 - 175.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Crime DelinquencyHome page
J. P. Caulkins and S. Chandler
Long-Run Trends in Incarceration of Drug Offenders in the United States
Crime Delinquency, October 1, 2006; 52(4): 619 - 641.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Crime DelinquencyHome page
R. R. Weidner, R. S. Frase, and J. S. Schultz
The Impact of Contextual Factors on the Decision to Imprison in Large Urban Jurisdictions: A Multilevel Analysis
Crime Delinquency, July 1, 2005; 51(3): 400 - 424.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 The Prison JournalHome page
R. R. Weidner, R. Frase, and I. Pardoe
Explaining Sentence Severity in Large Urban Counties: A Multilevel Analysis of Contextual and Case-Level Factors
The Prison Journal, June 1, 2004; 84(2): 184 - 207.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Int J Offender Ther Comp CriminolHome page
J. L. Neapolitan
An Examination of Cross-National Variation in Punitiveness
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, December 1, 2001; 45(6): 691 - 710.
[Abstract] [PDF]