Let’s Talk About the Rabble: Describing and Estimating America’s Permanent Criminal Class

• In Event: Beyond the Margins: Examining Deviance, Identity, and Institutional Violence in Cultural and Institutional Systems

Abstract

It is well-established that a small proportion of justice-involved individuals have frequent contact with the criminal justice system (CJS), contributing disproportionately to both system costs as well as to the volume of crime and disorder in communities. John Irwin (1985) characterized this population as “the rabble,” defined by two characteristics: “detachment and disrepute.” Current decarceration trends place more of these individuals in the community. However, processes of the CJS (e.g., the school-to-prison-pipeline, barriers to employment and housing) inhibit “successful reentry”, ensuring their continued membership in this permanent criminal class. The paucity of governmental economic and social support available to these individuals portends their continued CJS contact and further separation from conventional social institutions. This paper, part of a larger project on the role of the CJS in the growth of social exclusion, offers estimates of the size, features, and composition of this permanent criminal class, and discusses likely consequences if alternative ameliorative harm reduction strategies are not implemented to address this collision course of criminal justice reform and contemporary economic conditions.

Author

• Kate Auerhahn, Temple University