Crime, Law and Social Change

This article explores the relationship between the political economy and the criminal justice system through an analysis of the impact of long economic cycles in the social structure of accumulation on U.S. federal criminal justice legislation from 1948 to 1987. An analysis is conducted which compares both qualitative and quantitative changes in these legislative acts from the period of economic expansion (1948 to 1967) to the period of contraction (1968 to 1987). The research findings of this investigation indicate that mechanisms of social control intensify during periods of prolonged economic contraction; however, the concept of an “exceptional state”, with a proportional increase in more coercive crime control strategies, is somewhat challenged.

The environmental security risk which Iraq poses to itself and its neighbors is considerable. Iraq's enormous investments in military industries, including weapons of mass destruction, well-documented practice of environmental warfare, and extensive aggression against internal ethnic minorities and neighbors, have created long-term ecological problems which have degraded the air, water, and soil, negatively effected public health, and intentionally displaced populations. These and many other problems will confront any successor regime and the international community. Some of the environmental problems and their causes are reviewed here. It is suggested that detailed study and planning should begin immediately to catalog and address the environmental legacy.

The relationship between crime and incarceration is vexed. Some scholars suggest that incarceration deters crime. Others suggest that incarceration can increase crime in certain situations by undermining the social fabric and making the environment more criminogenic. Most of the empirical work on the question is undertaken at an aggregate level (county, state, or national data). Yet, criminologists have long argued that the complex intertwining of crime and punishment is best understood at the neighborhood level, where the impacts of incarceration on social relationships are most closely felt. This paper examines the question using a panel of neighborhoods in Tallahassee, Florida for the period 1995 to 2002. I find evidence to support the contention that the high levels of prison admissions and prison cycling (admissions plus releases) is associated with increasing crime rates in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This effect is not found in other neighborhoods. Looking more closely at the issues of race and class, I find that while marginalized neighborhoods experience slightly higher crime rates, they are faced with much higher incarceration rates. In Black neighborhoods in particular, prison admissions are an order of magnitude higher in comparison with non-Black neighborhoods even though underlying crime rates are not very different.