criminal castes, classes, and status groups Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 criminal castes, classes, and status groups Christopher Uggen, University of Minnesota [based on work with] Jeff Manza, Northwestern University Melissa Thompson, Portland State University 9/20/2018

social position of “America’s criminal class” Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 social position of “America’s criminal class” prisoners v. felons numbers collateral sanctions stigma conceptualization social class status group caste 9/20/2018

u.s. correctional populations, 1980-2004 Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 u.s. correctional populations, 1980-2004 9/20/2018

how many? life table methodology Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 how many? life table methodology number exiting prison since 1920s data improve in 1948, mid-1970s reductions for recidivism 66% lifetime rate for prison/parole 57% for probation/jail reductions for mortality felon multiplier ≈ 1.5*(black male rate) simplifying assumptions 9/20/2018

imprisonment criterion Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 imprisonment criterion current: 2.3 million prison and parole 2% of adult males 6.6% of black adult males ex: 4 million ex-prison and parole total: 6.3 million 2.9% of adult population 5.5% of adult males 17% of black adult males Imprisonment Criterion: If we limit the population to those who actually served time in a state or federal penitentiary, there are 2 million prisoners and parolees currently under supervision, representing about 1% of the adult population, 2% of the adult male population, and 8% of the black adult male population. Our life tables produce estimates of an additional 3 million ex-prisoners in the population. By our accounting, the ex-prisoner population was relatively stable at approximately one million from the 1950s to the late 1970s. In recent years, however, this group has cumulated more rapidly (FIGURE). There are many reasons for this increase, such as increased public concern with crime and drug use, legislative responsiveness to this concern, declining faith in rehabilitation and a trend toward longer more determinate sentences. When we combine the current and the ex-prisoner estimates, we find that more than 5 million U.S. citizens have served time in a penitentiary, representing about 2.5% of the adult population, 5% of the adult male population, and 19% of the black adult male population. Our “lower bound” estimate for black recidivism, assuming an 82% lifetime recidivism rate, gives us an estimate of 15.5% of black males are current or ex-prisoners. 9/20/2018

u.s. prisoners & estimated ex-prisoners, 1948-2004 Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 u.s. prisoners & estimated ex-prisoners, 1948-2004 9/20/2018

Christopher Uggen u.s. prisoners and estimated ex-prisoners as percentage of adult population, 1948-2004 9/20/2018 9/20/2018

Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 felony criterion current: 4.4 million current felons (prison, parole, felony probation, convicted felony jail) 3.6% of adult males 10% of black adult males ex: 11.7 million ex-felons total: 16.1 million 7.5% of adult population 13% of adult males 33% of black adult males 9/20/2018

u.s. felons & estimated ex-felons, 1968-2004 Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 u.s. felons & estimated ex-felons, 1968-2004 9/20/2018

Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 u.s. felons and estimated ex-felons as percent of adult population by race, 1968-2004 9/20/2018

how many? 4 million ex-prisoners, 12 million ex-felons who are they? Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 how many? 4 million ex-prisoners, 12 million ex-felons punishment cuts a wider swath through the life fortunes of young people today millions of former criminals live and work among us every day who are they? off-time on adult markers fewer than half ever married, received high school diploma; bare majority work full-time most convicted of non-violent offenses 9/20/2018

collateral sanctions & life chances Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 collateral sanctions & life chances socioeconomic occupational licensure public employment pell grants (drug) public assistance (drug) family public housing (drug) parental rights divorce civic voting juror internet record deportation 9/20/2018

increasingly public stigma Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 increasingly public stigma access to records arrest and misdemeanors registries vigilantes. michael mullen’s note to the seattle times: "the state of washington like many states now lists sexual deviants on the net. and on most of these sites it shares with us what sexual crimes these men have been caught for ... we cannot tell the public so-and-so is 'likely' going to hurt another child, and here is his address then expect us to sit back and wait to see what child is next.“ plates, signs, uniforms… 9/20/2018

theorizing social position Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 theorizing social position felons as caste extreme social closure, spanning generations marked for life – indelible excluded from wide-ranging institutions application to sex offenders? addresses, photos, personal histories widely disseminated not bound by blood or endogamous marriage 9/20/2018

prisoners and jail inmates as percentage of all in poverty, by race Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 prisoners and jail inmates as percentage of all in poverty, by race 9/20/2018

felons as class (mostly) lack property Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 felons as class (mostly) lack property Marxian lumpenproletariat and Wilson’s underclass? Distinctive stigma not shared by others Excluded class (e.g., Wacquant’s meshing of ghetto and prison) No common relationship to the economic system by virtue of conviction 9/20/2018

Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 felons as status group “a specific, positive or negative, social estimation of honor” a unique negative status honor, attaching to felony conviction Impacts standing as citizens, deference and derogation in community 9/20/2018

programmatic questions Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 programmatic questions formal rulemaking Variation across space and time individual impacts Effects of stigma on behavior aggregate impacts Effects on communities, states, nations informal stigma Variation in status dishonor generality of desistance Malleability, not stability 9/20/2018

Christopher Uggen 9/20/2018 9/20/2018