Objectives

The current study examines the percentage of a state’s total expenditures that is allocated for corrections in an attempt to untangle how the influence of key determinants helped to shift state resources in ways likely to aid prison expansion. This study further attempts to address how the salience of crime, partisan politics, and racial and social threats may have shifted over time and across regions.

Methods

The study employs a pooled time-series analysis of 49 states from 1971 through 2008, with a final sample size of N = 1862 cases, to examine the factors that help to predict the log-transformed percent of total state expenditures allocated for the total direct expenditures on corrections.

Results

The current study finds that determinants of state-level corrections spending vary across time. Violent crime had a positive and significant influence on corrections spending during the 80s, while Republican strength was similarly associated with increases in spending from the 80s through the 90s. Further, beginning in the 80s, percentage African-American were negatively associated with the proportion of budget allocated for corrections.

Conclusions

The findings presented in this study emphasize the importance of time and place when trying to untangle trends in correctional budget decision-making.

中文翻译：

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探索国家矫正支出的时变决定因素

目标

目前的研究调查了一个州分配给矫正的总支出的百分比，以试图解开关键决定因素的影响如何帮助以可能有助于监狱扩张的方式转移州资源。本研究进一步尝试解决犯罪、党派政治以及种族和社会威胁的显着性如何随着时间和跨地区而变化。

方法

该研究对 1971 年至 2008 年的 49 个州进行了汇总时间序列分析，最终样本量为N  = 1862 个案例，以检查有助于预测分配给总直接投资的州总支出的对数转换百分比的因素。纠正支出。

结果

当前的研究发现，州级矫正支出的决定因素随时间而变化。暴力犯罪对 80 年代的矫正支出产生了积极而显着的影响，而共和党的实力同样与 80 年代至 90 年代的支出增加有关。此外，从 80 年代开始，非裔美国人的百分比与分配给更正的预算比例呈负相关。

结论

本研究中提出的发现强调了时间和地点在试图解决矫正预算决策中的趋势时的重要性。