Read the American Affairs article “Incarceration as Incapacitation: An Intellectual History” (2018) by Timothy Crimmins (PDF attached) and respond to the
prompts below. Your responses should be around 150-200 words for each part of the prompt below (i.e. 800-1000 words total).
Describe some of the theories aimed at explaining the growth of incarceration proposed in the introduction of the article.
What is the “Rehabilitative ideal”, and how has it changed over time?
What did the author mean by “The Pincer Movement against Rehabilitation”? How did the two sides of this movement strengthen one another?
What was the “Martinson Report”? What did Martinson mean when he concluded that “Nothing works”?
How did James Q. Wilson influence the political discourse surrounding incarceration following the Martinson Report?
According to James Q. Wilson, why do criminologists struggle to reduce the crime rate through their research findings?
