1. 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

2. 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

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

4. 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

5. 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

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

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

8. 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

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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Christopher Uggen
9/20/2018
9/20/2018