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Story perspectives

Mass Incarceration Growth Still Tied to Race, Crime

8/18/2026

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Story summary
  • Scholars trace U.S. incarceration growth from 1926 to 2016 to homicide rates and racial threat narratives.
  • Researchers M. C. Campbell, M. Vogel and J. Williams (2023) find race, violent crime and region still shape mass incarceration.
  • Researcher S. W. Duxbury (2025) reports state prison populations are shrinking, questioning the drivers of the earlier prison boom.
  • Researcher W. E. B. Du Bois (1899) provides early evidence of racial disparities in urban crime in Philadelphia.