Doctoral Dissertation Research: Recidivism and Cycles of Incarceration

博士论文研究：累犯和监禁周期

• 批准号: 1409693
• 负责人: Stephen Pfohl
• 金额: $ 1.17万
• 依托单位: Boston College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-15 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1409693&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Recidivism; Cycles

Cycles of incarceration are typically investigated using large-scale, quantitative studies to identify variables that predict reoffending across thousands of people at a time. Recidivism research shows that histories of imprisonment, unemployment and drug abuse are all strong predictors of return to prison. This research will investigate the processes driving these statistical patterns. The research contends that prisonization (being socialized into prison-oriented behaviors), economic exclusion and drug use together create the social logic of recidivism. Economic exclusion increases both the financial draw of the drugs trade and the psychological rewards of drug use. Many people using and trading illicit drugs in poor urban neighborhoods find themselves imprisoned. At the same time, prisonization can involve learning skills and knowledge that facilitate entry to the drugs trade, an accumulation of street capital that promises status and income within street culture. I expect to see former prisoners reproducing habits and routines learned in prison, finding significant barriers to entering the labor market, and struggling with constraints and opportunities that increase the logic of using and selling drugs. This project uses ethnographic research living at a halfway house and interviews with former prisoners to investigate why people cycle in and out of prison. It focuses on three drivers of these cycles: prisonization, economic exclusion and drug use and addiction. Leveraging an existing network of connections with former prisoners developed through previous fieldwork living at the house, it involves a further phase of ethnographic immersion in the site, follow-up interviews with previous participants, and thematic interviews examining processes of economic exclusion and drug use and addiction. By living alongside people as they readjust to the world outside prison, I am able to see up close the set of contingencies that play upon former prisoners, and uncover processes underlying cycles of incarceration through detailed examination of daily rounds and routine activities. Investigating why people cycle in and out of prison will inform ongoing popular and policy-oriented discussions, at a time when lowering recidivism is a central social interest. Ethnographic research based on living at a halfway house - intuitively interesting to many potential readers - can provide a "hook" for spreading the research findings to a broader audience, and injecting methodically conducted social science research into public debate.

通常使用大规模的定量研究来调查监禁周期，以确定预测数千人再次犯罪的变量。累犯研究表明，监禁、失业和吸毒史都是重返监狱的强有力预测因素。这项研究将调查驱动这些统计模式的过程。研究认为，监禁（被社会化为监狱导向的行为），经济排斥和毒品使用共同创造了累犯的社会逻辑。经济排斥增加了毒品贸易的经济吸引力和吸毒的心理回报。许多在贫困的城市社区使用和交易非法毒品的人发现自己被监禁。与此同时，监禁可能涉及学习有助于进入毒品交易的技能和知识，积累街头资本，承诺在街头文化中获得地位和收入。我希望看到前囚犯复制在监狱中学到的习惯和惯例，找到进入劳动力市场的重大障碍，并与增加使用和销售毒品逻辑的限制和机会作斗争。这个项目使用住在中途之家的人种学研究和对前囚犯的采访来调查人们为什么骑自行车进出监狱。报告重点关注这些循环的三个驱动因素：监禁、经济排斥以及吸毒和吸毒成瘾。利用与前囚犯的现有联系网络，通过以前的实地考察生活在房子里，它涉及到在现场的民族志沉浸的进一步阶段，与以前的参与者的后续访谈，以及研究经济排斥和药物使用和成瘾过程的专题访谈。通过与重新适应监狱外世界的人生活在一起，我能够近距离地看到前囚犯身上发生的一系列意外事件，并通过详细检查日常活动和日常活动来揭示监禁周期的潜在过程。在降低累犯率是一个核心社会利益的时候，调查人们为什么循环进出监狱将为正在进行的流行和以政策为导向的讨论提供信息。基于在中途之家生活的人种学研究--对许多潜在的读者来说直观上很有趣--可以提供一个“钩子”，将研究结果传播给更广泛的受众，并将有条不紊地进行的社会科学研究注入公共辩论。