The American Society of Criminology Conference 2015: Organizing Policy Proposals for Washington D.C.

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

A forthcoming Gilens and Page publication in Perspectives on Politics entitled, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, used multivariate and parallel analysis of political initiatives from 1981 until 2002 and documented the resulting public policy implications. Finding that the efforts of United States citizens were never as influential as certain elites or “oligarchs” when attempting to implement changes in public policy, the authors of this study have concluded that the United States citizen can no longer promote changes through the traditional means of the democratic electoral process unless this change is also supported by these influential and powerful individuals. (2014) The criminal justice system in the United States incarcerates more individuals than any other nation and Lynch and Pridmore have provided research that highlights the reasons for this statistic, citing sentencing policies, and violent crime tendencies, along with the criminalization of drug offenses. (2011) The theme, Criminology at the intersections of Oppression, serves as a quantitative call for researchers within the social sciences to respond to a broken political process in an unorthodox manner. Political action may not come naturally, however the moral imperative associated with inaction represents a far greater threat to our society.

Author

• Austin Burchardt, University of North Georgia