View source for NOV 28

==23: NOV 28==

===Assigned===

:*Cavadino, Michael and James Dignan. "Penal policy and political economy". (17)

===Cavadino, Michael and James Dignan. "Penal policy and political economy"===

:*Crime rates by country [https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/crime-rate-by-country]
:*Homicide rates by country [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate]
:*Some data on the board about income tax rates and taxation as % of GDP.

:*Two claims:
::*Diffs in penality likely to continue in spite of globalization
::*One reason for this is that penality tracks political economy.

:*Starts with an overview of the influence of the US on global penal policy.  To the extent that US exerts influence on other countries to move in a neo-liberal direction there may be "penal convergence".  Also, incarcertation systems are one of our global exports!  "correctional imperialism"

:*Some elements of the US "justice model" (retributive punishment and retributive deterrence) travel faster than others.  "3 strikes" and "zero tolerance"

:*In Europe, the European Convention on Human Rights is influential.  Moved Russia away from capital punishment. 

:*441: Table: Typology of political economies and their penal tendencies.
::*Neo-liberal
::*Conservative corporatism
::*Social democratic corporatism
::*Oriental corporatism

:*Let's review some of the connections the authors make in their discussion. (bring in crime rates)

:*447: Table: Political economy and imprisonment rates.

:*Is neo-liberalism "criminogenic"? 
::*Possibly: Evidence that unequal societies with weak community relationships suffer from worse rates of crime. 447.
::*Interesting: Weak link bt crime rates and imprisonment rates.  
::*Some possible mechanisms:  Neo-liberal societies have high social exclusion: labor market and CJ failures.  The authors suggests a "feedback loop" here: the socially excluded confirm the neo-liberal narrative.
::*By contrast, Corporatist and social dem states are inclusionary, have a communitarian ethos. (Think back to "Are you alright?" MRFW News!).  "Welfare" can involve locking people up or giving them money.  

:*Beckett and Western (2001) and others claim that high welfare spending correlates with low incarceration (except Japan). Also, economic inequality predicts high incarceration rates.

===Drawing some implications from Cavadino & Dignan===

:*Weak link bt crime rates and imprisonment rates.  What might follow from this?  Maybe imprisonment rates are driven "MRFW ideology"?

:*Neo-liberal political economies may be indirectly "criminogenic".  How might a traditional MR defender respond?  Like my conservative friend to homelessness?  Better to live in a society that takes responsibility seriously than...(lots of ways to finish this sentence).

:*Methodological Point: We've sampled three kinds of writing about MR&FW.  It might be interesting to think about these together.
::*1. Traditional and current MR&FW defenders and sceptics; 
::*2. Contemp Naturalism and Cultural Evolution; and, now 
::*3. Contemp Political Science.

:*Culturally stable strategies.  How do you get to a new equilibrium?