Sentence Length, Severity, and the Demand for Prison Space

In: Social science quarterly, Band 77, Heft 2, S. 265-268

Abstract

In a comment on J. R. Clark & Dwight R. Lee's (1996 [see abstract 9714012]) article on the crisis of prison space in the US & resulting sentence length reductions, two competing hypotheses regarding longer sentences are discussed: (1) Extended prison time merely produces more hardened criminals. (2) Longer sentences tend to deter subsequent criminal activity. Also considered are Clark & Lee's use of the Laffer curve & their view that the lag in prison construction is due to political myopia, rather than construction costs. 10 References. S. Stanton