Caroline Heldman

Hidden Corporate Profits in the U.S. Prison System: The Unorthodox Policy-Making of the American Legislative Exchange Council

Abstract Using a leaked document trove containing 800 model bills, we analyze the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) hidden corporate profit making in the prison–industrial complex. We find that ALEC seeks to expand the private prison industry in three ways: (1) promoting greater use of private prisons, goods, and services, (2) promoting greater use of prison labor, and (3) increasing the size of the prison population. ALEC’s efforts to increase the prison population by expanding definitions of existing crime, creating new crimes, enhancing enforcement of existing crimes, amending the trial process to increase the likelihood of incarceration, and lengthening prison sentences for crimes pose a threat to civil liberties. ALEC’s unorthodox policy approach exemplifies John Gaventa’s theory that powerful interests maintain their power by creating conditions in which citizens are not able to identify and advocate on behalf of their interests.

From Ferraro to Palin: sexism in coverage of vice presidential candidates in old and new media

An analysis of news coverage of vice presidential candidates finds the previously observed media biases for women who run for other political positions to be present for women vice presidential nominees, and especially in the arena of new media, where editorial filters are mostly absent. Using content analysis of major print news and online blogs, we find sex inequalities in coverage tone, type, and hard sexism (overtly gendered insults). Coverage of female vice presidential candidates is more negative, more focused on her appearance and familial role, and more sexist, than coverage of male vice presidential candidates. Furthermore, we find that negative tone and hard sexism are more pronounced in the online blogosphere. The implication for women, especially for those with presidential ambitions, is that known media hostility may be a deterrent, and further stimulates the chronic underrepresentation of women in our governing institutions.

‘She’s White and She’s Hot, So She Can’t Be Guilty’: Female Criminality, Penal Spectatorship, and White Protectionism

Despite mainstream criminology’s burgeoning interest in issues of race, class, and gender, very little scholarship has examined whiteness and its attendant privileges in understanding public discourse on criminal offenders. This paper examines the role of penal spectatorship as a discursive mechanism by which white, female offenders are protected in public spaces by virtue of their racial and gender identity. Using a content analysis of comments posted on the mug shot images of white women on a popular ‘mug shot website,’ we find that these women are viewed as victims of circumstance deserving of empathy and redemption rather than as criminals. We offer ‘white protectionism’ as a means by which whites extend privilege and protection to other whites who transverse the boundaries of whiteness through criminality to guard against ‘deviant’ or ‘criminal’ designations. These findings add to our understandings of penal spectatorship as yet another tool of white supremacy operating in the Post-Civil Rights era of mass incarceration.

“Hot, Black Leather, Whip” The (De)evolution of Female Protagonists in Action Cinema, 1960–2014

This article employs a content analysis to investigate whether and how the violent woman archetype in action film changed from 1960 to 2014. We find a trend toward hypersexualized female action leads (FALs), starting in the 2000s. This trend is in line with the broader social trends of hypersexualization during this period, evidenced in a variety of other media sources. We then combine these findings with existing research to discuss the likely affects on viewers’ attitudes and beliefs. We suggest that the trend toward hypersexualizing FALs has harmful public health affects and is part of a broader cultural backlash against gender equity. Public Health Significance Statement: This study finds a trend toward hypersexualization of female protagonists in action cinema that contributes to the cultural normalization of female objectification. This normalization has been linked to clinical depression, habitual body monitoring, diet restriction, symptoms of anorexia and bulimia, social physique anxiety, shame about bodily functions, inhibited cognitive functioning, diminished motor skills, diminished sexual pleasure, lower self-esteem, diminished personal efficacy, and lower overall well-being for women.