INCARCERATION AS SOCIAL CONTROL
Incarceration is one of the purest, most direct forms of state power. ... The goal of incarceration is public safety and gives the general public the illusion if not the guarantee of safety. While penologists will argue that there is rehabilitative purposes for incarceration, it is a demonstration of state power and a means of maintaining social control by incapacitating criminals. ... However, crime rates and incarceration statistics tend to show that prison sentences have no progressive effect on crime rates because the probability of being apprehended is minimal. So, then, what is the point of incarceration? ... The deterrence strategy is an attempt to control crime socially through fear of being locked up, theoretically, suggesting that crime rates are influenced by incarceration rates. ... htm) Throughout the twentieth century, prison populations quintupled and yet, high incarceration rates have not lead to a decrease in crime rates. ... Albert Reiss, an American statistical criminologist, (1988) was the first scholar to consider the replacement theory and its affects on crime rates during periods of high incarceration. ... Although incarceration rates do not yield the deterrent effects that are expected, physically removing offenders from the community acts as a social defense against crime and gives the victim and community a feeling of retribution and safety.