Doctoral Dissertation Research: Explaining Changes In Incarceration In California And Texas

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PI and Co-PI: Kitty Calavita and Michael CampbellTitle: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Explaining Changes in Incarceration in California and Texas0752153Project AbstractThis research will explain how and why California and Texas implemented policies that dramatically increased their use of incarceration in the late twentieth century. County-level crime, demographic, socio-economic and electoral data will be used to examine changes in voting patterns and support for particular prison policies in both states. The bulk of the research will be conducted in Sacramento, California, and Austin, Texas, where the state archives contain extensive documentation of the various institutional and political developments that led to prison expansion. The project will focus on changes in two variables that could potentially help explain incarceration policy developments: the growing political influence of individuals and organizations associated with the criminal justice system itself, and changes in the nature of the voting electorate. The results should provide a clearer understanding of the relationship between crime rates, changing voting patterns, social and economic change, and evolving prison policies. It will highlight the theoretical relevance of criminal justice system players in shaping crime control policies, and will unpack the often oversimplified notion of public opinion and its role in policy change. At a broad level of potential impact, the project aims to stimulate a critical assessment of the policy formation process by highlighting the uneven distribution of power and influence as it relates to the use of prisons as a crime control strategy, and as such will contribute to our understanding of power, law, and the state.