Charles W. Thomas

A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Conceptualizations of public support for the death penalty that suggest that punitiveness, desire for vengenance, authoritarianism, polital conservatism, or other characteristics generally held in low esteem by many in the academic and research communities are the primary or most significant predictors of citizen responses to this issue are challenged. It is proposed instead that fear of crime, perceptions of increasing crime rates, a belief in the efficacy of punishment as a means of deterrence, and a willingness to employ punishment as a response to criminality have a far more important causal role than has previously been recognized.

The Effect of Formal and Informal Sanctions on Delinquency: A Longitudinal Comparison of Labeling and Deterrence Theories

Theoretical conflicts and contradictions tend to be more apparent than real. They commonly are based on little more than the choice of quite different levels of analysis, dissimilar operationalizations of key concepts, or a host of other factors that can foster significant misconceptions. From time to time, however, one encounters theoretically and substantively significant situations within which very matter-of-fact contradictions do exist. The purpose of this Article is to address one such contradiction in contemporary criminological theory and research. More specifically, the past two decades have witnessed a mas-

A Comparative Recidivism Analysis of Releasees from Private and Public Prisons

This research compared the recidivism rates of groups of releasees from privately and publicly operated prisons. The study consisted of 198 male releasees from two private facilities in Florida who were precision matched with releasees from public prisons. Recidivism over one year was measured in alternative ways. The private prison group had lower rates of recidivism. Those released from private prisons who reoffended committed less serious subsequent offenses than did their public prison counterparts. The two groups were similar in how long it took for rearrest or for the first recidivism event to occur.

Organizational Structure as a Determinant of Prisonization: An Analysis of the Consequences of Alienation

MATTHEW T. ZINGRAFF Bowling Green State University A n increasingly extensive volume of criminological research has focused on both the determinants and consequences of prisonization (Clemmer, 1940, 1951; Hayner and Ash, 1940; Schrag, 1944, 1954; McCorkle and Korn, 1954; Sykes, 1956, 1958; Fisher, 1961, 1965; Garrity, 1961; Wheeler, 1961; Garabedian, 1963, 1964; Tittle and Tittle, 1964; Glaser, 1964; Ward and Kassebaum, 1964, 1965; Giallombardo, 1966a, 1966b; Wellford, 1967; Atchley and McCabe, 1968; Mathiesen, 1968; Tittle, 1969; Edwards, 1970; Thomas and Foster, 1972, 1973; Zingraff, 1973; Thomas, 1973a; Neal et al., 1974; Thomas and Poole, 1975). The preponderance of this literature has shown that prisonization exerts a major influence in correctional institutions, an influence that appears counterproductive for those who seek to implement successful rehabilitation programs (e.g., Thomas, 1973b; Thomas and Poole, 1975). As comparative studies of prison organizations have become available, however, it has become increasingly clear that the content of the normative system into which inmates become assimilated is not necessarily either oppositional or

On the Measurement of Social Roles Adaptations in the Prison Community

Research involving the social roles adopted by inmates is important. This article discusses the means of acquiring information on the type of position that an inmate has assumed and how this might aid those who are interested or involved in attempts to alter the attitudes and behavior of those inmates. The articles purpose is to examine both the extent to which this approach can discriminate between types of inmates and its potential as a predictor of other important aspects of adaptation to confinement.