Punishment and Social Inequality
A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Crime and Justice".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2027 | Viewed by 162
Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Social Sciences invites manuscripts for a Special Issue entitled ‘Punishment and Social Inequality’.
Scholars representing a variety of disciplines, and employing diverse methodologies and theoretical perspectives, agree that punishment—the imposition of legal sanctions in response to violations of criminal laws—is not merely a response to crime, it is a social phenomenon closely related to social inequality. The relationship between punishment and inequality, however, is not well-understood; the empirical evidence is complex and findings often are inconsistent.
For this Special Issue, we invite submissions of empirical research that seeks to advance our understanding of potential relationships between punishment and inequality, broadly conceived. Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, macro-level analyses of punishment or related measures of formal social control (e.g., rates of imprisonment, per capita spending on criminal justice, or the adoption of sentencing reform), or individual-level analyses of case outcomes in the criminal justice process (e.g., arrest, charging, or sentencing to prison). We also welcome submissions examining punishment disparities by race, ethnicity, sex/gender, and other status characteristics; we are especially interested in research investigating linkages between punishment disparities and inequality in other realms. Theoretical or conceptual pieces examining these issues will also be considered.
Regardless of the dependent variable or ‘outcome’ examined, or the methodology employed, papers selected for this Special Issue will explore the role of social inequality or related measures (e.g., poverty, economic conditions, and racial threat) as factors affecting punishment, and/or the role of punishment as a factor contributing to inequality.
Dr. Rodney L. Engen
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- incarceration
- inequality
- punishment
- disparity
- sentencing
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