Research proposal

Through this research assignment I intend to address the efficacy of America’s mass incarceration policies on actually instigating (positive) societal change. Specifically, I hope to research the correlations, or lack thereof, of America’s criminal justice system and rates of criminal recidivism, the act of relapsing into one’s criminal behavior after experiencing punishment for a past crime. Through this, I wish to investigate the psychological toll of imprisonment and its effect on shaping an individual’s decisions after release. Does an individual who feels they were unrightfully sentenced tend to have a higher rate of turning towards criminal activity? This is an important issue as it is one that shapes our daily lives in the United States (whether it be directly or indirectly). The result of mass incarceration is essentially a semi-artificially molded society, one that seems to attempt to reach an unattainable ideal (a perfect society, relatively free of crime). However, a key issue with incarceration is the difficulty for prisoners to reintegrate themselves into a ‘normal’ life. Society is constantly changing and when one is barred from the external world for such periods of time they may fail to adapt to change. The most important outcome of this investigation is to see if mass incarceration is actually a contribution or detriment to society. My proposed research question would be : “how effective is mass incarceration in limiting criminal activity in American societies”.

This topic can be potentially controversial in the sense that if evidence is found that supports one side (i.e  that mass incarceration aids in the betterment of society), the results may seemingly antagonize the entire population of individuals (in this case, prisoners; many of which may be wrongfully imprisoned). It is possible to analyze patterns and general trends in a macroscopic context but when assessed on a microscopic level, general conclusions cannot always be applied to specific cases. A topic that I intended to address would be the impact of the prison environment on an individual’s mind and behavior (and more specifically the effect on the psychology of individuals wrongfully imprisoned / given an exceptionally long sentence due to America’s justice system). When addressing psychological impact on mental health I may pull information from Ethan Watters’ “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan”, which delves into topics of depression and how its severity is ignored and seemingly covered up. I will search for cases of individuals whose behavior regressed after release as well as cases of individuals who made reparations for their actions after release. I can attempt to find correlations between incarceration and degradation of mental health. I will perform a comparative analysis weighing the benefits and the drawbacks and attempt to analyze if the cost is worth the benefit. Furthermore, I will make distinctions between America’s system and rates of imprisonment and that of other countries.

Currently I hypothesize that there is an inherent flaw in the justice system, and thus, mass incarceration does not effectively reduce crime rate, but rather, perpetuates the stigmatization of mental health, drug addiction, etc. and ultimately is an attempt at ignoring a lingering issue. I intend to use the text “An Army of One : Me”, by John Twenge, to assess root causes for what would lead individuals to prison to begin with (i.e the decision to abuse illegal substances, steal, murder ,etc.). The text goes into detail about one’s self identity and how self esteem and developmental influences aid in shaping one’s identity. I can utilize the text to, not necessarily justify, but rather, explain the reasoning behind the decisions of the imprisoned individuals.

In Steven Johnson’s text, “The Myth of the Ant Queen”, Johnson describes the culture of Manchester and how the collective behavior of each individual is consequently responsible for the nature of the group. This can be applied to the context of my assignment as it may explain the identity that has been assigned to prisoners in general and how the actions of the majority ultimately incriminate the individuals unrightfully imprisoned. When in a prison setting it is as if an individual’s personal identity is stripped and they are held to the society’s expectation of what “defines” a prisoner. This goes back to addressing the earlier topic of how the antagonization of an entire group is far too general and may be controversial. Overall I hope to explain successes and inherent flaws of the current system and its effect on the American society as a whole.