Theoretical Implications

Abstract

A wide variety of results on prison crowding has been presented. In various places, the theoretical meaning of some of the results has been discussed, but so far no attempt has been made to provide a broad theoretical perspective for the range of these findings. There were few theoretical models available when we began our research, but this gap was quickly filled with a wide array of alternatives. Most of these perspectives were quite limited in scope and did not have the benefit of explicit tests of the hypothesized processes. They will not be examined in detail here, since this has been done elsewhere (see Baum & Paulus, 1987). In this chapter, the major elements emphasized by these models will be outlined and a theoretical model designed to account for the broad pattern of results will be presented.