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The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America
Over the last 35 years, the US penal system has grown at a rate unprecedented in US history--five times larger than in the past and grossly out of scale with the rest of the world. This growth was part of a sustained and intentional effort to "get tough" on crime, and characterizes a time when no policy options were acceptable save for those that increased penalties. In The Punishment Imperative, eminent criminologists Todd R. Clear and Natasha A. Frost argue that America's move to mass incarceration from the 1960s to the early 2000s was more than just a response to crime or a collection of policies adopted in isolation; it was a grand social experiment. Tracing a wide array of trends related to the criminal justice system, The Punishment Imperative charts the rise of penal severity in America and speculates that a variety of forces--fiscal, political, and evidentiary--have finally come together to bring this great social experiment to an end.
Clear and Frost stress that while the doubling of the crime rate in the late 1960s represented one of the most pressing social problems at the time, this is not what served as a foundation for the great punishment experiment. Rather, it was the way crime posed a political problem--and thereby offered a political opportunity--that became the basis for the great rise in punishment. The authors claim that the punishment imperativeis a particularly insidious social experiment because the actual goal was never articulated, the full array of consequences was never considered, and the momentum built even as the forces driving the policy shifts diminished. Clear and Frost argue that the public's growing realization that the severe policies themselves, not growing crime rates, were the main cause of increased incarceration eventually led to a surge of interest in taking a more rehabilitative, pragmatic, and cooperative approach to dealing with criminal offenders.
The Punishment Imperative cautions that the legacy of the grand experiment of the past forty years will be difficult to escape. However, the authors suggest that the United States now stands at the threshold of a new era in penal policy, and they offer several practical and pragmatic policy solutions to changing the criminal justice system's approach to punishment. Part historical study, part forward-looking policy analysis, The Punishment Imperative is a compelling study of a generation of crime and punishment in America.
Todd R. Clear is Dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. He is the author of Imprisoning Communities and What Is Community Justice? and the founding editor of the journal Criminology & Public Policy.
"Backed up by the best science, Todd Clear and Natasha Frost make a compelling case for why the nation's forty-year embrace of the punitive spirit has been morally bankrupt and endangered public safety. But this is far more than an expose of correctional failure. Recognizing that a policy turning point is at hand, Clear and Frost provide a practical blueprint for choosing a different correctional future--counsel that is wise and should be widely followed."--Francis T. Cullen, Distinguished Research Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati
Clear and Frost stress that while the doubling of the crime rate in the late 1960s represented one of the most pressing social problems at the time, this is not what served as a foundation for the great punishment experiment. Rather, it was the way crime posed a political problem--and thereby offered a political opportunity--that became the basis for the great rise in punishment. The authors claim that the punishment imperativeis a particularly insidious social experiment because the actual goal was never articulated, the full array of consequences was never considered, and the momentum built even as the forces driving the policy shifts diminished. Clear and Frost argue that the public's growing realization that the severe policies themselves, not growing crime rates, were the main cause of increased incarceration eventually led to a surge of interest in taking a more rehabilitative, pragmatic, and cooperative approach to dealing with criminal offenders.
The Punishment Imperative cautions that the legacy of the grand experiment of the past forty years will be difficult to escape. However, the authors suggest that the United States now stands at the threshold of a new era in penal policy, and they offer several practical and pragmatic policy solutions to changing the criminal justice system's approach to punishment. Part historical study, part forward-looking policy analysis, The Punishment Imperative is a compelling study of a generation of crime and punishment in America.
Todd R. Clear is Dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. He is the author of Imprisoning Communities and What Is Community Justice? and the founding editor of the journal Criminology & Public Policy.
"Backed up by the best science, Todd Clear and Natasha Frost make a compelling case for why the nation's forty-year embrace of the punitive spirit has been morally bankrupt and endangered public safety. But this is far more than an expose of correctional failure. Recognizing that a policy turning point is at hand, Clear and Frost provide a practical blueprint for choosing a different correctional future--counsel that is wise and should be widely followed."--Francis T. Cullen, Distinguished Research Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati
- GenresNonfictionHistoryLaw
269 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 31, 2016
The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America by Todd R. Clear & Natasha A Frost is a critical look at the failure of the correctional measure adopted in the United States, and argued that the system which has been dominant for more than a generation, has now run its course. The book is academic in nature and should be read by policy-makers involved in the correctional system.
The book consists of seven informative and perceptive chapters, which includes The Beginning of the End of the Punishment Imperative, The Contours of Mass Incarceration, The Punishment Imperative as a Grand Social Experiment, The Policies of the Punishment Imperative, Two Views on the Objectives of the Punishment Imperative, Assessing the Punishment Imperative and Dismantling the Punishment Imperative.
Having a look at the system, and putting forward their assessment, the authors ask the question: Is this something we wish to continue? In the final chapter Dismantling the Punishment Imperative, the authors explore the mechanisms by which it may be more rapidly brought to its conclusion and put forward three agenda: repealing mandatory penalties, reducing length of stay and reducing rates of recidivism.
In short, the book argues for a paradigm shift in view and attitude toward incarceration in America.
The book consists of seven informative and perceptive chapters, which includes The Beginning of the End of the Punishment Imperative, The Contours of Mass Incarceration, The Punishment Imperative as a Grand Social Experiment, The Policies of the Punishment Imperative, Two Views on the Objectives of the Punishment Imperative, Assessing the Punishment Imperative and Dismantling the Punishment Imperative.
Having a look at the system, and putting forward their assessment, the authors ask the question: Is this something we wish to continue? In the final chapter Dismantling the Punishment Imperative, the authors explore the mechanisms by which it may be more rapidly brought to its conclusion and put forward three agenda: repealing mandatory penalties, reducing length of stay and reducing rates of recidivism.
In short, the book argues for a paradigm shift in view and attitude toward incarceration in America.
September 17, 2013
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The book started out a little slow, with the first chapter being a little technical and difficult to immerse into. By the second chapter though, things begin to pick up. The flow of the book comes together and the information is a lot easier to process. By the end of the book, I was really into it and couldn’t put it down. If you find yourself unable to stop reading, don’t worry, this book is an extremely quick read and only took me about a day to finish.
There is a lot of information presented throughout this book. At times the amount of information was overbearing, but usually it was a very manageable amount presented at a time. With the information being given to the reader there were a lot of statistics. Normally I am not a huge fan of stats but this book is really the perfect place for them. The placement of the statistics really did a nice job of emphasizing certain points for the reader.
The graphics also did a nice job of emphasizing certain points to the reader. Sometimes the statistics were hard to visualize and the graphs placed throughout the book aided in driving the point home to the reader. They were unobtrusively placed at the top of a page, allowing the reader to continue reading with only a casual glance, and managing to avoid interrupting the overall flow of the book.
The writing in this book is decent. There was such a constant stream of facts that the writer’s style of writing didn’t really shine through. But the authors’ presentation of facts was pleasant to read through and very informative. After reading the book and being exposes to the authors writing style, if I came across another book written by the same authors I wouldn’t hesitate to read it.
There were a couple of times where the authors stated things such as “in the remainder of this chapter we describe what we think…”. It drives me nuts when authors A) refer to themselves in their non-fiction book and B) refer to the chapter itself. This isn’t a huge issue, and only occurred sporadically at the beginning of the book, but it’s one of my pet peeves and so I figured it deserved a mention.
This book would probably be a 3.5 star book. There was a lot of information given in the book and by the end I felt that I had learned a lot, yet the book was a little too numbers/statistic based for my liking.
I received this book for review purposes via NetGalley.
The book started out a little slow, with the first chapter being a little technical and difficult to immerse into. By the second chapter though, things begin to pick up. The flow of the book comes together and the information is a lot easier to process. By the end of the book, I was really into it and couldn’t put it down. If you find yourself unable to stop reading, don’t worry, this book is an extremely quick read and only took me about a day to finish.
There is a lot of information presented throughout this book. At times the amount of information was overbearing, but usually it was a very manageable amount presented at a time. With the information being given to the reader there were a lot of statistics. Normally I am not a huge fan of stats but this book is really the perfect place for them. The placement of the statistics really did a nice job of emphasizing certain points for the reader.
The graphics also did a nice job of emphasizing certain points to the reader. Sometimes the statistics were hard to visualize and the graphs placed throughout the book aided in driving the point home to the reader. They were unobtrusively placed at the top of a page, allowing the reader to continue reading with only a casual glance, and managing to avoid interrupting the overall flow of the book.
The writing in this book is decent. There was such a constant stream of facts that the writer’s style of writing didn’t really shine through. But the authors’ presentation of facts was pleasant to read through and very informative. After reading the book and being exposes to the authors writing style, if I came across another book written by the same authors I wouldn’t hesitate to read it.
There were a couple of times where the authors stated things such as “in the remainder of this chapter we describe what we think…”. It drives me nuts when authors A) refer to themselves in their non-fiction book and B) refer to the chapter itself. This isn’t a huge issue, and only occurred sporadically at the beginning of the book, but it’s one of my pet peeves and so I figured it deserved a mention.
This book would probably be a 3.5 star book. There was a lot of information given in the book and by the end I felt that I had learned a lot, yet the book was a little too numbers/statistic based for my liking.
I received this book for review purposes via NetGalley.
February 6, 2014
This is a subject I find completely interesting and a topic that I think is important for most Americans to know about and discuss. There is no argument that the prison population in the US is growing at an astonishing rate and this book is one of the better attempts I have read in explaining why things are the way they are.
The writing style of this book isn’t bad. In fact in comparison to many books focusing on sociological studies it does an excellent job of presenting information in a conversational style. Most books in this genre tend to be on the bland side and come off closer to text books rather than something you might read for pleasure. That being said the authors are still academics tackling a subject with data. What that really means is no matter how flowing the writing style is there is no way to escape the dense push of data that the reader is hit with. They do what they can to lessen the impact but this will never be a book you will read for pure entertainment. It is slow to start off as the authors try and give the reader enough background, incredible technical at points and presents an overwhelming amount of information.
As for the content of the book, their research is impeccable and they have some very interesting facts and conclusions about the current issue of prison population and criminal sentences. From a shear academic standpoint this is an excellent book that is worth reading. There is no doubt you will learn something from this book and take the issues much more seriously than before you picked it up.
http://homeofreading.com/the-punishment-imperative/
The writing style of this book isn’t bad. In fact in comparison to many books focusing on sociological studies it does an excellent job of presenting information in a conversational style. Most books in this genre tend to be on the bland side and come off closer to text books rather than something you might read for pleasure. That being said the authors are still academics tackling a subject with data. What that really means is no matter how flowing the writing style is there is no way to escape the dense push of data that the reader is hit with. They do what they can to lessen the impact but this will never be a book you will read for pure entertainment. It is slow to start off as the authors try and give the reader enough background, incredible technical at points and presents an overwhelming amount of information.
As for the content of the book, their research is impeccable and they have some very interesting facts and conclusions about the current issue of prison population and criminal sentences. From a shear academic standpoint this is an excellent book that is worth reading. There is no doubt you will learn something from this book and take the issues much more seriously than before you picked it up.
http://homeofreading.com/the-punishment-imperative/
March 15, 2014
The book did seem really repetitive but with an argument, you want to drive the point home. That goes without saying there was A LOT of information in this book. Although it makes me angry reading these types of books because I reflect on the inequality (which is the point), I did enjoy reading this book. I had a couple of good conversations with other people who had read the book in my class too and it brought up new viewpoints for me.
October 29, 2016
The punishment system we've had it's clear from the book hasn't worked. Recommended read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews