English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Zendy Plus

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Zendy Tools

Zendy Open

In a series of articles, Alfred Blumstein has proposed and tested a homostatic model of punishment in society. Based on ideas found in Durkheim, Blumstein hypothesizes that, over stable historical periods, the level of punishment in a society will be stable as well. After analyzing time series of imprisonment rates for three countries, Blumstein finds support for his hypothesis. In this paper, I re-analyze one of Blumstein's time series and analyze several others, including data for California from 1853 to 1970. These analyses and re-analyses, of both imprisonment and prison admission rates, show no support for the stability of punishment hypothesis. As a consequence, I argue that doubts can be raised about the adequacy of Blumstein's empirical analyses, that the measure of punishment he uses-imprisonment rates-may not be as good a measure of punishment as prison admission rates, and that additional approaches should be explored in order to provide more compelling tests of the stability of punishment hypothesis. * This research was supported by the National Institute of Justice (Grant No. 78-NI-AX0093). Richard A. Berk, Sheldon L. Messinger, and Thomas P. Wilson provided helpful comments and suggestions. Thanks go to Pat Gibson and Trina Marks Miller for typing various drafts, and to Kathy Stathopoulos for helping prepare the data. ** Ph.D. candidate, Dep't of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara; Senior Programmer, Social Process Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Crime and Punishment Reconsidered: Some Comments on Blumstein's Stability of Punishment Hypothesis