Incapacitation
is a philosophy of incarceration that argues that some offenders might have to be
incarcerated not for what they have done but to prevent future harm to the community.
The philosophy of incapacitation depends on the community's
ability to identify those that might re-offend. Some also argue that it is unfair to
punish people for what they might do, rather than for what they have done.
Selective incapacitation is provided for under dangerous
offender legislation.
The Ethics of Selective Incapacitation: Observations on the
Contemporary Debate
Andrew von Hirsch
Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 30, No. 2, 175-194 (1984) DOI: 10.1177/0011128784030002002
© 1984 SAGE Publications
With growing attention to "selective incapacitation" strategies, the issue of
the fairness of prediction-based sentencing has revived. Some recent advocates of such
strategies have argued that predictive sentencing is just, because the criteria for
prediction (particularly, the offender's prior criminal history) coincide or overlap with
the criteria for deserved punishment. This article contends that such claims are mistaken:
that, in fact, the criteria for prediction and for desert differ significantly in the
degree of emphasis that may be placed on the prior criminal history, and in the type of
information about that history which may appropriately be used. The article also
criticizes recent arguments that desert furnishes only broad outer limits on punishments,
within which predictive determinations may fairly be used. It is concluded that the
tension between selective incapacitation and desert cannot be ignored; and that the use of
selective-incapacitation strategies in sentencing entails sacrifices of equity for
offenders. - cad.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/2/175
Selective Incapacitation: Sentencing According to Risk
John Blackmore, Jane Welsh
Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 29, No. 4, 504-528 (1983) DOI: 10.1177/001112878302900402 ©
1983 SAGE Publications
In October 1982, the Rand Corporation published Selective Incapacitation, a sentencing
proposal based on seven years of research by a team of Rand researchers under the
direction of Peter Greenwood. In his report, Greenwood claims to have developed a
classification scheme that would enable criminal Justice practitioners to determine which
offenders should receive long, "incapacitating" prison sentences and which can
be sentenced to alternative programs or safely released to the community. If implemented
in its purest form, he says, selective incapacitation could result both in a net reduction
of crime in the community and in the number of offenders who would need to be
incarcerated. Since the release of the Rand report, most criminologists agree that
Greenwood's findings are incomplete, methodologically flawed, and do not justify his
policy proposal. Some have also raised moral and legal objections to it. In this article
we outline the history, criticism and impact of selective incapacitation. We find that
there are no clear and forceful answers to the dilemmas posed by the Greenwood saga.
However, the,pressure on the research community to come up with quick and easy answers to
complex social problems, we suggest, is less than subtle, particularly when money,
reputation and the ability to do research hang in the balance. -
cad.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/4/504
Selective Incapacitation?
STEPHEN D. GOTTFREDSON, DON M. GOTTFREDSON
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 478, No. 1,
135-149 (1985) DOI: 10.1177/0002716285478001012 © 1985 American Academy of Political
& Social Science
Recent sentencing proposals for the selective incapacitation of criminal offenders have
generated a great deal of enthusiasm and controversy. The concept has been greeted
enthusiastically because it promises simultaneously to decrease the crime rate and to
reduce crowding in the nation's prisons. The controversy stems from two sources: concerns
of science and of ethics. This article describes the selective incapacitation proposal and
the scientific and ethical controversies it has generated. Finally, an alternative
strategy for using risk predictions is presented. It is thought to meliorate the ethical
concerns discussed and to hold promise for reducing prison crowding without endangering
the public. - ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/478/1/135
Are Idle Hands the Devil's Workshop? Incapacitation, Concentration, and Juvenile
Crime
Jacob B.A.; Lefgren L.
Source: The American Economic Review, Volume 93, Number 5, 1 December 2003, pp.
1560-1577(18)
Abstract: This paper examines the short-term effect of school on juvenile crime. To do so,
we bring together daily measures of criminal activity and detailed school calendar
information from 29 jurisdictions across the country, and utilize the plausibly exogenous
variation generated by teacher in-service days. We find that the level of property crime
committed by juveniles decreases by 14 percent on days when school is in session, but the
level of violent crime increases by 28 percent on such days. Our findings suggest that
both incapacitation and concentration influence juvenile crime. - ingentaconnect.com
Deterrence and Incapacitation: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis of California's
Three-Strikes Law
Ramirez J.R.; Crano W.D.
Source: Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Volume 33, Number 1, 1 January 2003, pp.
110-144(35)
Abstract: Using uniform crime statistics, this research investigates the impact of
California's three-strikes law on instrumental, violent, minor, and drug-related crimes
over the first 5 years of the law'simplementation. Autoregressive integrated moving
average (ARIMA) models reveal little immediate impact of the law,but significant effects
on instrumental crime over time, suggesting an incapacitation effect. After correcting for
autocorrelation distortions, less restrictive multiple regression models that test
simultaneously for immediate and gradual intervention effects disclose immediate
(deterrent) effects on instrumental and minor crimes and arrests, and long-term
(incapacitation) effects on these and violent crimes as well. Drug-related crimes appear
impervious to the three-strikes law under any analytic model, suggesting the
unresponsiveness of such crimes to increasingly severe legal sanctions. -
ingentaconnect.com
The Determinants of Punishment: Deterrence, Incapacitation and Vengeance
Does the economic model of optimal punishment explain the variation in the sentencing
of murderers? As the model predicts, we find that murderers with a high expected
probability of recidivism receive longer sentences. Sentences are longest in murder types
where apprehension rates are low, and where deterrence elasticities appear to be high.
However, sentences respond to victim characteristics in a way that is hard to reconcile
with optimal punishment. In particular, victim characteristics are important determinants
of sentencing among vehicular homicides, where victims are basically random and where the
optimal punishment model predicts that victim characteristics should be ignored. Among
vehicular homicides, drivers who kill women get 56 percent longer sentences. Drivers who
kill blacks get 53 percent shorter sentences. - papers.nber.org/papers/W7676
The Philadelphia Birth Cohort and Selective Incapacitation
THOMAS J. BERNARD, R. RICHARD RITTI
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Vol. 28, No. 1, 33-54 (1991) DOI:
10.1177/0022427891028001003 © 1991 SAGE Publications
The birth cohort data from Wolfgang and colleagues' 1972 study is analyzed to determine
marginal benefits (police reports and serious adjudications that would not have occurred)
and marginal costs (the juvenile incarceration rate that would have resulted, as compared
to present rates) if nine hypothetical incapacitation policies had been in effect at the
time. None of these policies appears realistic in terms of the cost-benefit ratio. -
jrc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/1/33
Assessing the Impact of Exposure Time and Incapacitation on Longitudinal Trajectories
of Criminal Offending
Alex R. Piquero, Northeastern University
Alfred Blumstein, Carnegie Mellon University
Robert Brame, University of Maryland
Rudy Haapanen, California Youth Authority
Edward P. Mulvey, University of Pittsburgh
Daniel S. Nagin, Carnegie Mellon University
Journal of Adolescent Research, Vol. 16, No. 1, 54-74 (2001) DOI: 10.1177/0743558401161005
© 2001 SAGE Publications
The authors examine the potential effect of accounting for exposure time by examining the
arrests of 272 serious offenders who were paroled at age 18 and followed through age 33.
The authors describe the overall change in the arrest rate over the 16-year period, with
and without adjustments for exposure time. The authors also estimate latent class models
that decompose the heterogeneity of arrest rate trends, with and without variation in
exposure time. Two results are noteworthy: (a) conclusions about the level of arrest
activity did depend on adjustments for exposure time, but the overall trend in arrest
activity did not depend on these adjustments; and (b) latent class analysis without
exposure time adjustments suggested that more than 92% of the sample exhibited their
highest level of arrest activity in late teens and early 20s; then offending declined
during the late 20s and early 30s. When adjusted for exposure time, the analysis revealed
that about 72% of the sample exhibited this decline; the remainder remained quite active
in offending. - jar.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/16/1/54
Sex Offender Laws: Can Treatment, Punishment, Incapacitation, and Public Safety be
Reconciled?
Mary Ann Farkas, Amy Stichman
Criminal Justice Review, Vol. 27, No. 2, 256-283 (2002) DOI: 10.1177/073401680202700204 ©
2002 Georgia State University, College of Health and Human Sciences
Sex offenders are viewed a unique type of criminal offender, particularly as more
"objectionable,' less treatable, more dangerous, and more likely to recidivate. In
recent years, these offenders have once again become the focus of intense legal scrutiny,
primarily through laws specifically targeting them for indefinite confinement,
registration and community notification, polygraph testing, and chemical castration. This
article examines the underlying assumptions and justifications for these sex offender
laws. We ask whether treatment, punishment, and public safety can be reconciled as
justifications for the laws. We conclude that, even though treatment is an implicit
rationale in the laws' provisions, punishment, incapacitation, and public safety are the
ostensive purposes of these special laws and policies directed toward sex offenders.
Moreover, this article questions the constitutionality and rationality of sex offender
laws and policies and their consequences for sex offenders, treatment professionals, the
mental health and criminal justice systems, and society in general. -
cjr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/2/256
The Goals of Corrections: Perspectives from the Line
Misty Kifer, Craig Hemmens, Mary K. Stohr
Criminal Justice Review, Vol. 28, No. 1, 47-69 (2003) DOI: 10.1177/073401680302800104 ©
2003 Georgia State University, College of Health and Human Sciences
Four different goals of corrections are commonly espoused: retribution, deterrence,
incapacitation, and rehabilitation. Each of these goals has received varied levels of
public and professional support over time. In an effort to assess the level of
professional support for these goals, a survey was administered to staff in three prisons,
two jails, and a jail academy in a rural mountain state. The results indicate that jail
and prison staff are more likely than not to perceive the primary goal of corrections as
incapacitation. Respondents generally ranked incapacitation first, followed by deterrence,
rehabilitation, and retribution. Age, years of service, military background, and facility
type (prison or jail) were significant predictors of staff orientation toward
rehabilitation. For jail staff, only gender was related to a rehabilitation orientation.
For prison staff, only age and years of service were related to a rehabilitation
orientation. The authors conclude that role perceptions are colored by a variety of
factors, including age, gender, years of service, facility type, and prior military
service. - cjr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/1/47
Prison Overcrowding: The Law's Dilemma
EDWARD M. KENNEDY
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 478, No. 1,
113-122 (1985) DOI: 10.1177/0002716285478001010 © 1985 American Academy of Political
& Social Science
The author focuses on the importance of criminal sentencing policy to prison overcrowding
and advocates comprehensive sentencing reform that emphasizes selective incapacitation of
dangerous offenders as a sensible approach to conserving scarce prison resources. The
author is the chief sponsor of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which was recently
enacted as part of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The Sentencing Reform Act,
which embodies the most comprehensive reform of criminal sentencing ever undertaken by
Congress, establishes an independent United States Sentencing Commission to establish a
uniform sentencing policy and mandatory sentencing guidelines to be used by federal
judges. The act abolishes early release on parole, cautions the Sentencing Commission to
develop guidelines that minimize prison overcrowding, and emphasizes use of incarceration
for dangerous, violent repeat offenders. The use of uniform sentences and selective
incapacitation provided for in the new law offers a constructive approach to the
intractable problem of prison overcrowding. -
ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/478/1/113
Incapacitation and Just Deserts as Motives for Punishment
PAUL H. ROBINSON, University of Pennsylvania Law School
KEVIN CARLSMITH, Colgate University
JOHN M. DARLEY, Princeton University
Law and Human Behavior, Vol. 24, pp. 659-683, 2000
Abstract: What motivates a person's desire to punish actors who commit intentional,
counternormative harms? Two possible answers are a just deserts motive or a desire to
incarcerate the actor so that he cannot be a further danger to society. Research
participants in two experiments assigned punishments to actors whose offenses were varied
with respect to the moral seriousness of the offense and the likelihood that the
perpetrator would commit similar future offenses. Respondents increased the punishment as
the seriousness of the offense increased, but their sentences were not affected by
variations in the likelihood of committing future offenses, suggesting that just deserts
was the primary sentencing motive. Only in a case in which a brain tumor was identified as
the cause of an actor's violent action, a case that does not fit the standard prototype of
a crime intentionally committed, did respondents show a desire to incarcerate the actor in
order to prevent future harms rather than assigning a just deserts based punishment. -
hermes.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=678963
Dangerousness and Incapacitation: A Predictive Evaluation of Sentencing Policy Reform
in California
Kathleen Auerhahn
Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice, National Institute of Justice, United States
This predictive evaluation of sentencing policy reform in California concludes that the
State's "Three Strikes" law will not be effective in incapacitating dangerous
offenders, and it recommends alternatives to guide policymakers in constructing and
implementing sentencing policies that will effectively target and incapacitate dangerous
offenders.
Abstract: Sentencing policies that claim to enhance public safety by selectively
incapacitating dangerous offenders must make clear the characteristics of a dangerous
offender and must ensure that these dangerous offenders are actually the ones targeted for
selective incapacitation. In discussing the history of efforts to predict
"dangerousness," this study notes the limited success of these endeavors.
Sentencing innovations such as Three Strikes and Truth in Sentencing aim to select the
most dangerous offenders for lengthy incarceration, thereby isolating them from society;
however, due to structural constraints (the availability of prison space), the net effect
of these laws may be a reduction in the aggregate level of dangerous offenders in the
prison population, as more dangerous offenders who are not subject to mandatory minimum
sentences are released to make room for "Three Strikes" and other mandatorily
sentenced offenders. In the current analysis, "dangerousness" is used as an
evaluative construct to estimate the level of dangerousness in correctional populations.
The modeling strategy used consists of measuring certain characteristics of individuals
known to correlate with dangerousness. The level of dangerousness in a population is
defined as the mean level of dangerousness in individuals that comprise the population.
The dangerousness construct as measured in individuals takes the form of an additive index
that consists of the following variables: age, gender, number of prior felony convictions,
the presence or absence of violent prior felony convictions, and current conviction
offense. This study conducted a simulation analysis to reproduce the compositional
dynamics of the California criminal justice system during the period 1979-98, so as to
determine whether the system had been successful in incapacitating dangerous offenders.
The findings showed that the dangerousness of incarcerated populations in California had
decreased rather than increased in the last two decades, while the dangerousness of
noncustodial populations had either remained relatively constant (parole) or increased
dramatically (probation). The principal trends were the aging of incarcerated populations
and the increased influx of drug offenders into the system. Three alternate scenarios are
presented to explore various ways to achieve greater average dangerousness in the
incarcerated population, thus increasing the incapacitation of dangerous offenders. The
first two of the scenarios accept the fact of an aging prison population and examine ways
to focus the Three Strikes law more narrowly on particular types of offenders (those who
have shown a capacity for violence either in the past or in the current offense). The
third alternative would implement a program of geriatric release in California prisons. -
ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=189734
On the Usefulness of Controlling Individuals: An Economic Analysis of Rehabilitation,
Incapacitation, and Deterrence
Ehrlich, Isaac - ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v71y1981i3p307-22.html
Effects of Judges' Sentencing Decisions on Criminal Careers
Don M. Gottfredson
Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice, National Institute of Justice, United States
This study determined the degree to which judicial sentencing decisions affected
subsequent criminal careers for 962 felony offenders in Essex County, N.J., who were
sentenced in 1976 and 1977 variously to confinement and noncustodial programs.
Abstract: The 18 participating judges exercised considerable discretion in their
sentencing decisions. The data collected included judicial perceptions, the judges'
predictions of the offenders' future criminal behavior, the judges' sentencing purposes,
offender backgrounds, execution of sentences, and offenders' arrests and charges during
the 20 years after sentencing. Also measured were the judges' selection of various
sanctions, the validity of subjective and objective predictions of future criminal
behavior (risks), and the offenders' time in the community (free of the incapacitating
effects of jail or prison). The findings show that the judges' subjective risk assessments
of offenders' likelihood of recidivism, although only modestly valid, had a substantial
influence on their sentencing choices. More formal, empirically derived methods provided
better measures of the risk of recidivism. Available sentencing choices had little effect,
other than that of incapacitation, on recidivism as measured by new arrests and charges.
Whether the offender was confined or given noncustodial sanctions made no difference, nor
did where the offender was confined, the length of the offender's maximum imposed
sentence, the length of time the offender was confined, a "split" sentence of
jail and probation, or fines or restitution. The findings thus offer little support, aside
from incapacitation, for increased use of confinement, emphasis on longer terms, or more
acceptance of specific deterrence as a crime-control strategy. -
ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=178889 |