RADICAL EXPLANATIONS OF PENAL TRENDS: THE RATE OF SURPLUS VALUE AND THE INCARCERATION RATE IN THE U.S., 1977-2004

ABSTRACT

This article reassesses the relationship between the rate of surplus value and the rate of imprisonment in the US. Prior studies of this relationship indicated that the rate of surplus value, which measures the marginalization, exploitation and alienation of the labor force, and the rate of imprisonment were statistically related. These studies, however, focused on data from the 1950s through the 1970s. The present article updates that analysis by focusing on the time period from 1977 through 2004. The results support those from earlier studies, lending additional support to radical explanations of the expansion of formal social control such as imprisonment. This article also offers an elaboration of the radical economic underpinnings of this explanation, as well as various radical explanations of incarceration. Further, the implications for political economic theories of punishment derived from post-Fordist economic perspectives, the politics of punishment, and agency perspectives on punishment are also discussed.