Is America Really So Punitive? Exploring a Continuum of U.S. State Criminal Justice Policies (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Kutateladze explores variations in punitiveness among American states. He uses state punitiveness to refer to criminal justice policies that target suspects, defendants, convicts, inmates, and releasees. Based on the examination of 44 variables across 50 states and the four regions, into which these states were grouped, Florida emerged as the most punitive, and Maine as the least punitive. The study also suggests that the American South is highly punitive, the West and the Midwest moderately punitive, and the Northeast relatively non-punitive. The success of this method in measuring state punitiveness suggests that the instrument may be useful for both within-nation and between-nation comparisons.