Punishment and Social Structure Revisited: Unemployment and Imprisonment in the United States, 1948–1984

Abstract

Several recent empirical studies of imprisonment trends in the United States and Western Europe confirm Rusche and Kirchheimer's thesis that unemployment affects imprisonment directly with crime held constant. This empirical confirmation, however, remains suspect because these studies fail to address alternative explanations adequately. This article examines these alternatives more thoroughly and considers a limitation on the scope of the thesis. In particular, because the thesis concerns competitive labor markets of industrial capitalism, we reason that unemployment plays less of a role in the dynamics of imprisonment where the labor market is less freely competitive. The analysis of post-World War II trends reveals robust results for the Rusche-Kirchheimer thesis and limited empirical support for differences in labor markets.