W w w. H a m I l t o n p r o j e c t. O r g acknowledgements

The Hamilton Project  •  Brookings   21

O’Donoghue, Ted, and Matthew Rabin. 2001. “Risky Behavior 

among Youths: Some Issues from Behavioral Economics.” In 

Risky Behavior among Youths: An Economic Analysis, edited by 

Jonathan Gruber. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. http://

www.nber.org/chapters/c10686.

Perry, Steven W. 2005. “Justice Expenditures and Employment 

Extracts, 2002.” Table 1. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of 

Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, 

DC. http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1026.

———. 2008. “Justice Expenditures and Employment Extracts, 

2006.” Table 1. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice 

Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC. 

http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1022.

Petteruti, Amanda, Nastassia Walsh, and Tracy Velazquez. 2009. 

“The Costs of Confinement: Why Good Juvenile Justice 

Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense.” Justice Policy Institute, 

Washington, DC. www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/

documents/09_05_rep_costsofconfinement_jj_ps.pdf.

Pettit, Becky. 2012. Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth 

of Black Progress. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Pettit, Becky, and Bruce Western. 2004. “Mass Imprisonment 

and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. 

Incarceration.” American Sociological Review 69: 151–69. 

http://www.asanet.org/images/members/docs/pdf/featured/

ASRv69n2p.pdf.

The Pew Charitable Trusts. 2010. “Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s 

Effect on Economic Mobility.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, 

Washington, DC. http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/

wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Economic_Mobility/

Collateral%20Costs%20FINAL.pdf?n=5996.

Raphael, Steven. 2007. “The Impact of Incarceration on the 

Employment Outcomes of Former Inmates: Policy Options 

for Fostering Self-Sufficiency and an Assessment of the Cost-

Effectiveness of Current Corrections Policy.” Goldman School 

of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, 

CA. http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~raphael/raphael%20july%20

2007.pdf.

———. 2011. “Incarceration and Prisoner Reentry in the United 

States.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 

Sciences 635: 192–215. http://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/

research/pdf/The_ANNALS_of_the_American_Academy_of_

Political_and_Social_Science-2011-Raphael-192-215.pdf.

Raphael, Steven, and Michael Stoll. 2009. “Why Are So Many 

Americans in Prison?” In Do Prisons Make Us Safer? The 

Benefits and Costs of the Prison Boom, edited by Steven Raphael 

and Michael Stoll, 27–72. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

———. 2013. Why Are So Many Americans in Prison? New York: 

Russell Sage Foundation.

Sabol, William J., Heather Couture, and Paige M. Harrison. 2007. 

“Prisoners in 2006.” Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of 

Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, 

DC. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p06.pdf.

Sabol, William J., Heather C. West, and Matthew Cooper. 2010. 

“Prisoners in 2008.” Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of 

Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, 

DC. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p08.pdf.

Sharkey, Patrick, Nicole Tirado-Strayer, Andrew V. Papachristos, C. 

Cybele Raver. 2012. “The Effect of Local Violence on Children’s 

Attention and Impulse Control.” American Journal of Public 

Health 102 (12): 2287–93. http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/

articles/83522176/effect-local-violence-childrens-attention-

impulse-control.

Sickmund, Melissa, T.J. Sladky, Wei Kang, and Charles 

Puzzanchera. 2013. “Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in 

Residential Placement.” National Center for Juvenile Justice, 

Office of Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice 

Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC. http://

www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezacjrp/.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2014. “Intentional 

Homicide, Count and Rate per 100,000 Population (1995–

2011).” UNODC Homicide Statistics. United Nations Office 

on Drugs and Crime, Vienna, Austria. http://www.unodc.org/

unodc/en/data-and-analysis/homicide.html.

U.S. Census Bureau. 2001. “Monthly Estimates of the United States 

Population: April 1, 1980 to July 1, 1999, with Short-Term 

Projections to November 1, 2000.” Population Estimates 

Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, 

Washington, DC. http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/

totals/1990s/tables/nat-total.txt.

———. 2011. “Intercensal Estimates of the Resident Population 

by Sex and Age for the United States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 

2010.” Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, 

DC. http://www.census.gov/popest/data/intercensal/national/

nat2010.html.

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22   Ten Economic Facts about Crime and Incarceration in the United States

———. 2013. “Monthly Population Estimates for the United States: 

April 1, 2010 to November 1, 2013.” Population Division, U.S. 

Census Bureau, Washington, DC. http://www.census.gov/

popest/data/historical/2010s/vintage_2012/national.html.

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). 2010a. “Criminal Victimization 

in the United States, 2008 Statistical Tables.” Table 14. 

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. 

Department of Justice, Washington, DC. http://www.bjs.gov/

content/pub/pdf/cvus08.pdf.

———. 2010b. “Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics.” FBI, U.S. 

Department of Justice, Washington, DC. http://www.

ucrdatatool.gov/.

———. 2011. “Crimes against Persons, Property, and Society.” 

National Incident-Based Reporting System, FBI, U.S. 

Department of Justice, Washington, DC. http://www.fbi.

gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/2011/resources/crimes-against-

persons-property-and-society.

———. 2012. “National Incident-Based Reporting System 2012.” 

FBI, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC. http://www.

fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/2012/data-tables/.

———. n.d. Federal Criminal Case Processing Statistics. Bureau of 

Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department 

of Justice, Washington, DC. http://www.bjs.gov/fjsrc/.

Walmsley, Roy. 2013. “World Prison Population List (tenth 

edition).” International Centre for Prison Studies, London, 

United Kingdom. http://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/

prisonstudies.org/files/resources/downloads/wppl_10.pdf.

Western, Bruce, and Christopher Wildeman. 2009. “The Black 

Family and Mass Incarceration.” Annals of the American 

Academy of Political and Social Sciences 621: 221–42. http://

scholar.harvard.edu/brucewestern/publications/black-family-

and-mass-incarceration.

Wildeman, Christopher. 2009. “Parental Imprisonment, the Prison 

Boom, and the Concentration of Childhood Disadvantage.” 

Demography 46 (2): 265–80. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

pmc/articles/PMC2831279/.

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The Hamilton Project  •  Brookings   23

Hamilton Project Papers Related to Crime and 

Incarceration

•  “A New Approach to Reducing Incarceration While 

Maintaining Low Rates of Crime”

Steven Raphael and Michael A. Stoll propose reforms that would 

reduce incarceration while keeping crime rates low by reforming 

sentencing practices and by creating incentives for local 

governments to avoid sentencing low-level offenders to prison.

•  “Think Before You Act: A New Approach to Preventing  

Youth Violence and Dropout”

Jens Ludwig and Anuj Shah propose a federal government 

scale-up of behaviorally informed interventions intended to 

help disadvantaged youths recognize high-stakes situations 

when their automatic responses may be maladaptive and  

could lead to trouble. 

•  “Thirteen Economic Facts about Social Mobility and the  

Role of Education”

The Hamilton Project examines the relationship between 

growing income inequality and social mobility in America. The 

memo explores the growing gap in educational opportunities 

and outcomes for students based on family income and the 

great potential of education to increase upward mobility for all 

Americans.

•  “From Prison to Work: A Proposal for a National Prisoner 

Reentry Program”

Bruce Western proposes a national prisoner reentry program 

whose core element is up to a year of transitional employment 

available to all parolees in need of work.

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24   Incarceration_in_the_United_States'>Ten Economic Facts about Crime and Incarceration in the United States

---

ADVISORY COUNCIL

GEORGE A. AKERLOF

Koshland Professor of Economics

University of California, Berkeley

ROGER C. ALTMAN

Founder & Executive Chairman

Evercore

ALAN S. BLINDER

Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor

of Economics & Public Affairs

Princeton University

JONATHAN COSLET

Senior Partner & Chief Investment Officer 

TPG Capital, L.P.

ROBERT CUMBY

Professor of Economics

Georgetown University

JOHN DEUTCH

Institute Professor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

CHRISTOPHER EDLEY, JR.

Dean and Professor, Boalt School of Law

University of California, Berkeley

BLAIR W. EFFRON

Founding Partner

Centerview Partners LLC

JUDY FEDER

Professor & Former Dean

Georgetown Public Policy Institute

Georgetown University

ROLAND FRYER

Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics

Harvard University 

CEO, EdLabs

MARK T. GALLOGLY

Cofounder & Managing Principal

Centerbridge Partners

TED GAYER

Vice President & Director

of Economic Studies 

The Brookings Institution

TIMOTHY GEITHNER

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary 

RICHARD GEPHARDT

President & Chief Executive Officer

Gephardt Group Government Affairs 

ROBERT GREENSTEIN

President

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities 

MICHAEL GREENSTONE

3M Professor of Environmental Economics

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

GLENN H. HUTCHINS

Co-Founder 

Silver Lake

JIM JOHNSON

Chairman

Johnson Capital Partners

LAWRENCE F. KATZ

Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics

Harvard University

MARK MCKINNON

Former Advisor to George W. Bush

Co-Founder, No Labels

ERIC MINDICH

Chief Executive Officer

Eton Park Capital Management

SUZANNE NORA JOHNSON

Former Vice Chairman

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

PETER ORSZAG

Vice Chairman of Global Banking

Citigroup, Inc.

RICHARD PERRY

Managing Partner & Chief Executive Officer

Perry Capital

MEEGHAN PRUNTY EDELSTEIN 

Senior Advisor

The Hamilton Project

ROBERT D. REISCHAUER

Distinguished Institute Fellow and  

President Emeritus

The Urban Institute

ALICE M. RIVLIN

Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution 

Professor of Public Policy

Georgetown University 

DAVID M. RUBENSTEIN 

Co-Founder & Co-Chief Executive Officer

The Carlyle Group

ROBERT E. RUBIN

Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary

LESLIE B. SAMUELS

Senior Counsel

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

SHERYL SANDBERG

Chief Operating Officer 

Facebook

RALPH L. SCHLOSSTEIN

President & Chief Executive Officer

Evercore

ERIC SCHMIDT

Executive Chairman 

Google Inc.

ERIC SCHWARTZ

76 West Holdings

THOMAS F. STEYER

Business Leader & Investor

LAWRENCE SUMMERS 

Charles W. Eliot University Professor 

Harvard University

PETER THIEL

Technology Entrepreneur, Investor,  

and Philanthropist

LAURA D’ANDREA TYSON

S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global 

Management, Haas School of Business

University of California, Berkeley

MELISSA S. KEARNEY

Director

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Printed on recycled paper.

6.

7.

8.

10.

9.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Crime rates have steadily declined over the past 

twenty-five years.

Low-income individuals are more likely than higher-

income individuals to be victims of crime.

The majority of criminal offenders are younger than  

age thirty.

Disadvantaged youths engage in riskier criminal 

behavior.

Federal and state policies have driven up the 

incarceration rate over the past thirty years.

The U.S. incarceration rate is more than six times that of 

the typical OECD nation.

There is nearly a 70 percent chance that an African 

American man without a high school diploma will be 

imprisoned by his mid-thirties.

Per capita expenditures on corrections more than tripled 

over the past thirty years.

By their fourteenth birthday, African American children 

whose fathers do not have a high school diploma are 

more likely than not to see their fathers incarcerated.

Juvenile incarceration can have lasting impacts on a 

young person’s future.

Ten Economic Facts about Crime and Incarceration in the United States

Sources: Austin et al. 2000; Cahalan 1986; personal communication with E. Ann Carson, Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 24, 2014; Census Bureau 

2001; Glaze 2010, 2011; Glaze and Herberman 2013; Raphael and Stoll 2013; Sabol, Couture, and Harrison 2007; Sabol, West, and Cooper 2010; authors’ 

calculations.

Note: Incarceration rate refers to the total number of inmates in custody of local jails, state and federal prisons, and privately operated facilities within that 

year per 100,000 U.S. residents. The three events highlighted in this figure are examples of the many policy changes that are believed to have influenced the 

incarceration rate since the 1980s. For more details, see the technical appendix.

Incarceration Rate in the United States, 1960–2012

Federal policies, such as the Sentencing Reform Act, and state policies, such as “three strikes” legislation, were major 

contributing factors to the 222 percent increase in the incarceration rate between 1980 and 2012.

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

Incar

cer

ation r

at

e per 100,000 r

esiden

ts

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

0

Twenty-four states adopt or 

strengthen “three strikes” legislation

Sentencing Reform Act of 1984

Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986