The Racial Politics of Mass Incarceration

Many argue that America’s punitive turn was the result of racial backlash to the Civil Rights Movement. Yet some have noted support among black people for the policies attributed to this backlash, citing the influence of rising crime on black voters and politicians. In this article we gather new evidence and examine what it implies. Public opinion data show that not just the white but also the black public became more punitive after the 1960s. Voting data from the House show that most black politicians voted punitively at the height of concern about crime. In addition, an analysis of federally mandated redistricting suggests that in the early 1990s, black political representation had a punitive impact at the state level. Together, our evidence suggests that crime had a profound effect on black politics. It also casts some doubt on the conventional view of the origins of mass incarceration.