Welfare Generosity and Offense-Specific Prison Admissions, 1990-2019

• In Event: State Prisons & Legal Change

Abstract

Scholars have documented that the relative influence of offense-specific prison admissions on imprisonment rates has shifted during the prison boom, with certain offense types playing a more central role during some periods than others (e.g., the War on Drugs). Yet, research examining the impact of welfare provision on imprisonment has focused almost exclusively on total counts of admissions or persons incarcerated. This lack of attention to offense-specific admissions may be consequential, as there is reason to suspect that changes in welfare would be more directly linked to less serious offenses (e.g., larceny) than to more serious offense types (e.g., murder). Using annual, state-level data from 1990-2019, this paper aims to examine the relationship between welfare generosity and prison admissions for violent, property, and drug crimes in order to specify and expand on our understanding of the complex relationship between welfare and imprisonment.

Author

• Stefan P. Ivanov, University at Albany, SUNY