Poverty, Inequality, and Incarceration: Estimates from State- and Prison-Level Data

Quantitative evidence that poverty and economic inequality impact incarceration are presented. Three samples are examined, a panel of U.S. states and cross-sections of U.S. state and county prisons. In all three, incarceration is shown to rise as local poverty and/or inequality increase. Estimated i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of poverty Vol. 28; no. 5; pp. 436 - 453
Main Authors Sutton, Marshall B., Routon, P. Wesley
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Binghamton Routledge 28.07.2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
21st century
Economic inequality
Imprisonment
incarceration
income inequality
Inequality
jail
Poverty
prison
Prisons
States
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Summary:Quantitative evidence that poverty and economic inequality impact incarceration are presented. Three samples are examined, a panel of U.S. states and cross-sections of U.S. state and county prisons. In all three, incarceration is shown to rise as local poverty and/or inequality increase. Estimated impacts are found much stronger within relatively low-incarceration areas. Geographically, the relationship between inequality and incarceration is found to be statistically significant across the nation, but the relationship between poverty and incarceration appears more regional. However, the impact of poverty is shown to have increased during the early 21 st century, while the opposite is true for inequality.
ISSN:1087-5549
1540-7608
DOI:10.1080/10875549.2023.2235336