Use a theoretical perspective from the reading to explain the relationship between urban poverty and mass incarceration.
What will be an ideal response?
1. The U.S. prison population is largely comprised of individuals from racially and economically segregated neighborhoods – largely urban, poor, non-white communities.
2. These communities are characterized by the difficulties of the realities of living in poverty – e.g., low-quality schools and lack of employment opportunities that provide stable, well-paid employment.
3. Strain theory would assert that the conditions of urban poverty make it such that individuals living in these communities have few opportunities to achieve cultural goals through legitimate means, so they are more likely to engage in criminal activity and become part of the prison population.
4. (Or,) Labeling theory draws our attention to the stigma associated with both being poor and having a criminal record. Both of these labels have negative connotations that can create self-fulfilling prophecies regarding who commits and largely gets convicted for committing crimes.
Learning Objective: 10.5.3 Analyze the complex consequences of mass incarceration on community life.
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