Articles in Policy Riffs
The number of incarcerated people in the United States decreased slightly in 2010. Does that reflect a decreasing desire to lock people up? A drop in crime? Philip Cohen considers these questions and takes a look at the 2010 numbers in two great graphs. Philip is a sociologist at the University of Maryland, College Park. He blogs at Family Inequality.
Why are Jamaicans hit disproportionately hard by deportation from the U.S.? Sociologist Tanya Golash-Boza looks into this issue, reporting from Jamaica. Tanya is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and American Studies at the University of Kansas. The stories in this article are part of a larger project where Tanya interviewed over 150 deportees in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Brazil.
Angela Irvine was the Principal Investigator on the Annie E. Casey Foundation national survey of 2,200 LGBTQ youth in the juvenile justice system. This article draws on that research, which also appeared in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. Angela is the Associate Director at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Did our first black president finally change the sentencing rules that treat crimes committed more often by black people differently from crimes committed more often by white people? Public Intellectual social sciences editor Nikki Jones takes a critical look at the Obama administration’s crime policy.
