IncapacitationThe one, sure way that imprisonment prevents crime is by restraining offenders from committing crimes while they are locked up. Called "incapacitation" by experts in criminology, this effect has become the dominant justification for imprisonment in the United States, where well over a million persons are currently in jails and prisons and public figures who want to appear tough on crime periodically urge that we throw away the key. How useful is the modern prison in restraining crime, and at what cost? How much do we really know about incapacitation and its effectiveness? This book is the first comprehensive assessment of incapacitation. Zimring and Hawkins show the increasing reliance on restraint to justify imprisonment, analyze the existing theories on incapacitation's effects, assess the current empirical research, report a new study, and explore the links between what is known about incapacitation and what it tells us about our criminal justice policy. An insightful evaluation of a pressing policy issue, Incapacitation is a vital contribution to the current debates on our criminal justice system. |
Contents
Dominance by Default | 3 |
The Short History of an Idea | 18 |
Elements of Theory | 42 |
The Jurisprudence of Incapacitation | 60 |
Strategies of Research | 79 |
Imprisonment and Crime in California | 100 |
Other editions - View all
Incapacitation: Penal Confinement and the Restraint of Crime Franklin Zimring,Gordon Hawkins Limited preview - 1995 |
Incapacitation: Penal Confinement and the Restraint of Crime Franklin E. Zimring,Gordon Hawkins No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
adult aggregate analysis arrest average Blumstein burglary California chapter coefficient of variation Cohen Commission confinement consensual crimes convicted offenders cost of crime crime prevention crime reduction crime volume criminal activity criminal careers criminal justice policy debate deterrence discussion dollar esti Franklin E Greenwood homicide impact imprisonment policy inca incapacitation effects incapacitation estimates incarceration increase index felonies individual crime rates Jeremy Bentham justification for imprisonment juvenile larceny large numbers levels measure median ment methods monitoring motor vehicle theft number of crimes number of offenders offense rates official-record pacitation pattern penal policy percent percentage Peter Greenwood Petersilia potential offenders predictions of dangerousness prison and jail prison population prison sentences prison system problem projection punishment rape recidivism reduce reported restraint risk robbery sanctions selective incapacitation seven index Shinnar social cost strategy studies tences tion tive trends U.S. Department variation victims Wickersham Commission Zedlewski