ABSTRACT
A long-standing sociological tradition considers the type of social control measures utilized in a society to be determined by its more fundamental features. To social scientists inspired by Marx, the mode of production in a society, the demand for exploitable labor, and the kinds and intensity of class conflict are fundamental determinants. Prison expansion is only one of many ways punishment policy has been toughening. The toughening of criminal justice policy reverses a number of these trends, just as reversals of incorporative trends are taking place on policies not directly related to crime, where the state has been promoting a transition from a forced division of labor toward organic solidarity. The precise nature of the backlash, and the interests that are at stake, are of some interest. The same concern with justice figures prominently in reasons that supporters of the death penalty give to explain their support.
