Book Review: Is America Really So Punitive? Exploring a Continuum of U.S. State Criminal Justice Policies

• Author: Ellen F. Chayet
• Published date: 01 September 2011
• Date: 01 September 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016810386168
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

B. Kutateladze

Is America Really So Punitive? Exploring a Continuum of U.S. State Criminal Justice Policies El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly

Publishing, 2009. viii, 297 pp. $75.00. ISBN 978-1-59332-395-0

Reviewed by: Ellen F. Chayet, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, NY, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016810386168

The United States is arguably among the most punitive countries in the world: or is it?

Besiki Kutateladze begins ‘‘Is America Really So Punitive? Exploring a Continuum of U.S. State

Criminal Justice Policies’’ by questioningthis truism, which is largely based on the use of incarcera-

tion and the death penalty. This conclusion, however, masks regional or state-level variation in puni-

tiveness within the United States. The author contends that a more nuanced analysis and

understanding of punitiveness is prerequisite for cross-national comparisons of state ‘‘toughness.’’

The ambitious macro-level research reported here reconceptualizes punitiveness, incorporating a

variety of indicators to develop a measure that accounts for multiple dimensions of this concept and

tests this measure in all 50 United States.

Claiming that it has been ‘‘poorly defined and inconsistently operationalized’’ (p. 3), Kutateladze

briefly reviews scholarly works on state punitiveness. His own research explicitly refrains from

explaining why the United States may be harsher than other countries. Indeed, determining the influ-

ential factors would be precipitous before first understanding whether and how any jurisdiction is, in

reality, more punitive. The book’s advancement of a methodology for answering these questions

may permit new approaches for comparative penology and theory development.

After framing a theoretical discussion in ‘‘What is ‘State Punitiveness,’’’ Kutateladze articulates

his working definition as a composite of a state’s ‘‘... ideologies, policies and programs of dealing

with ‘objects’ of the criminal justice system’’ (p. 13). He identifies the variety of official and unof-

ficial data sources that are collected on recent (viz., post-1980s) penal policy and practice. Relatively

absent, however, are measures of community sanctions. The multidimensional instrument consists

of 44 discrete and often complex punishment indicators, some newly introduced, categorized into

5, logically coherent indices: political and symbolic punishment, incarceration, punishing

‘‘immorality,’’ conditions of confinement, and juvenile justice. The rationale and construction of the

measure is clearly argued and meticulously operationalized.

Once statistics are generated for the indicators, Kutateladze’s relatively straightforward analysis

involves several stages. The construction and analysis of the indices form the primary chapters,

which painstakingly delineate, for each variable, its selection rationale, specific data sources, and

data estimation procedures. After thus deconstructing different ways in which states can be tough,

a later chapter considers overall punitiveness based on all 44 indicators.

Part One examines 11 indicators reflecting political and symbolic aspects of punishment. Crafted

from the death penalty, sex offender registries, life in prison, disenfranchisement and ‘‘three strikes

laws,’’ the South is highly punitive and the Northeast least punitive. Part Two, recognizing that

incarceration is often equated with state punitiveness, constructs two sets of variables: incarceration

rates (5 indicators) and sentences imposed and time served (10 indicators) overall and for the same

Criminal Justice Review

36(3) 357-374

ª2011 Georgia State University

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