perform some research on similar, industrialized (or more developed) countries with lower incarceration rates than the United States (this website may help
http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total
). Summarize and describe other strategies these countries have utilized in crime prevention. Are any of these strategies ones we could potentially adopt in the United States, why or why not?
Be sure to cite any outside resources (including your textbook) using MLA citation format
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8. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
8
Where people violate the rules and norms of society and how they are punished is a
matter of significant interest to geographers. Spatial perspectives and a variety of tools
used by geographers are successfully applied to the study of crime, advancing both
public safety and our understanding of the effects of the criminal justice system. .
The criminal justice system in the United States is massive. Since the 1980s, “get tough on
crime” programs have caused prison and jail populations to explode. In 2017, more than
two million people are locked up in the United States. This is easily the highest number in
the world. At around one percent of all Americans, our incarceration rate is also one of the
world’s highest. An additional 5 million people are on parole. Criminal activity, and how we
deal with, it presents a massive burden on American society that we seem unable to address.
Crime is a huge industry. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, around three
million Americans work in police and sheriff’s departments, the penal system, as security
guards, in parking enforcement and other related protective service occupations. An
additional one million work in legal occupations (judges, lawyers, clerks, etc.). About
100,000 people are probation officers. Nearly 20,000 teach others about the criminal justice
system.
Geography offers some answers that other
disciplines do not when it comes to crime. The
spatial patterns of crime, victimization, laws,
and punishment / rehabilitation strategies vary
wildly across the United States. Analyzing these
patterns from a spatial perspective offers
forceful insight into why crime is such a
problem. Criminal justice issues
simultaneously provides a rich environment in
which to apply epistemological and
Figure 8-1: Angola, LA – The infamous Louisiana State
Penitentiary, located in a swampy bend of the Mississippi
methodological approaches favored by
River has a notorious past and a poor record of
rehabilitation.
geographers. This chapter therefore is shorter
and focuses on applied geography in a specific subfield of geography.
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Spatial Patterns of Crime
Crime rates vary wildly by location. Some neighborhoods suffer little from crime, while
others are plagued by it. These patterns repeat themselves at a variety of scales from the
street corner to entire countries. According to the United Nations, Latin America and Africa
were the two most dangerous regions on earth in recent years. Europe and East Asia on the
other hand have very low homicide rates. The United States is somewhere in the middle.
Figure 8-2: World Map – Homicide Rate or Murders per 100,000 people (2013). Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa have the
highest murder rates in the world, in some places 10 times the rates found elsewhere. Source: United Nations
A good deal of the elevated murder and crime rates worldwide can be attributed to gangs or
organized crime syndicates, especially where the production and transportation of illegal
drugs is concerned. The illegal drug trade is in turn fueled by the opportunity to make vast
sums of money, or in many cases, a meager sum of money where economic opportunities
are few. Proximity to the massive drug markets in the United States and Europe, as well as
the spatial logics of agricultural production also encourages the drug trade.
In the United States, the old “Yankee” region
seems to be the safest place to live, while the
Deep South is most dangerous. For example,
the murder rate is nearly five times higher in
Louisiana than it is in Vermont and Iowa. Of
course, not all parts of Louisiana are equally as
dangerous. Within each state, crime rates vary
greatly as well. For example, in Louisiana where
the murder rate is very high, of the nearly 500
Figure 8-3: US Map – Homicide Rate by States. According to
the government, states in the Deep South have the highest
murders committed in 2013, more than 90%
murder rate. Data: Federal Bureau of Investigation.
were in cities. In Los Angeles, neighborhoods
with the most violent crime experience around four times as much as the statewide average,
but hundreds of times more crime than the safest neighborhoods in other parts of the city.
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The rate of property crime also varies greatly
through space. Clearly you are more likely to
have your car or truck stolen if you live in
California or Washington than if you live in
New York or Wisconsin (see map).
What accounts for the amazing variability in
crime on the map? Most of it can be traced to
the likely suspects: income inequality, lack of
opportunity, racism, poverty, poor schools,
gang activity, drug and alcohol abuse.
Geography of Punishment
Figure 8-4: Map: Los Angeles County by Violent Crime
Crime prevention is the goal of law enforcement Rate. In LA County, some neighborhoods report over 150
violent crimes per 10,000 people. Other neighborhods
agencies. There are a number of strategies for
have none. Scale is critical in examining a variety of issues.
preventing crime, but in the United States, the
Source: Los Angeles Times.
favored method is clearly punishment.
Americans favor the idea that putting criminals in jail not only punishes the criminal, it
offers them a chance for rehabilitation. Americans also cling closely to the idea that jail time
serves as an effective deterrent to those considering crime. It’s a questionable philosophy.
The United States has the highest
incarceration rate in the world at over 700
persons per 100,000. Of all the prisoners in the
world, one quarter are in American jails,
though Americans constitute only 5% of the
world population. England, Germany and
Japan, as well as many other highly
industrialized nations have much lower
incarceration rates, ranging between 50 and
Figure 8-5: US Map – Auto Theft Rates by States. People
steal cars at a much higher rate in California than they do in
100 persons per 100,000. Americans could
the state of New York. Why might this pattern occur? Data:
learn from the beliefs and practices of other
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
countries, but we are oddly resistant to
learning from other countries when it comes to certain things. Crime is one of those things.
The Imprisoner’s
Dilemma
A Statistical
Investigation into the
link between mass
imprisonment and
crime rates.
FiveThirtyEight
From an international perspective, the American criminal justice system, which relies on
mass incarceration as the principle tool in the arsenal of crime prevention, is a terrific
failure. People go to prison for offenses that generally would not warrant jail time in other
countries, like passing bad checks or possessing small amounts of marijuana. American
criminals go to prison a lot longer as well. The rate at which people go to jail in the US and
many European countries is nearly equal; but American prisoners stay jailed twice or three
times as long. Some of the harshness is attributable to the types of crimes committed in the
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United States. The non-violent crime rate and the simple assault rate in the United States are
similar to what is found in Europe. However, very violent crimes are committed at a much
greater frequency in the United States. It appears that Americans’ exceptionally easy access
to firearms creates far more opportunities for Americans to use a weapon in a crime.
Because gun-related crimes receive far longer sentences than those without guns, there is
another factor contributing to the population of long-term prison inmates.
Another significant component of America’s
love affair with prisons is attributable to the
cultural politics of the United States.
Americans decided to fight the “war on drugs”
primarily through imprisonment rather than
offering less expensive drug-addiction
treatment or investing in effective prevention
programs. In the 1970s, a cultural backlash
against a perceived cultural permissiveness, led Figure 8-6: San Quentin, CA – This prison, like many far
exceeds its designed capacity. Officials have turned to private
to a “get tough on crime” political populism,
corporations or early parole to cope. Source: Wikimedia.
called law and order politics. Because the
United States’ judicial system is one of the few in the world that allows citizens to elect
judges, law enforcement leaders (Sheriffs) and prosecutors, candidates for such offices, from
both parties, worked to prove who can be toughest on crime. Rarely, do these types of
elected officials campaign on being the smartest on crime. As a result, prison populations
have boomed since the 1970s. Some states also turned to corporations that run private
prisons to help house inmates, and by doing so created an economic incentive to those in that
industry to maintain high crime rates, incarceration rates and recidivism rates.
YouTube
Kids for Cash
A Documentary about
the dangers of forprofit prisons and
get-touch judges.
The United States also executes those
convicted of particularly heinous crimes
more frequently than most of the world.
During the Great Depression the US
executed nearly 200 per year. After World
War II, it became far less common and for
much of the 1970s, there were none because
the US Supreme Court found execution to
be cruel and unusual punishment, and
Figure 8-7: US Map: Incarceration Rates -2010. Some states
have pursued mass incarceration more fiercely than others,
therefore unconstitutional. But, law and
but the efficacy of this strategy is in question. Source: Bureau
order politics caught up to the justice system of Justice Statistics.
and after 1977, executions resumed in some
states. By 1998, executions reached a post-moratorium peak of 98 people, about half the
peak number in the 1930s. That number has fallen since. In 2015, the US executed 28.
Several states, after discovering via DNA evidence that some of their death row inmates
were innocent, abolished the practice. Texas executes by far the most people in the United
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States, about half of the nation’s total. Florida and Oklahoma account for much of the rest of
American executions. California had over 700 prisoners on death row, but they are not
likely to be executed because of the numerous court cases challenging both the death penalty
in general, and individual appeals. Over half of the death penalty cases come from just a few
counties in the country. Duval County, Florida (Jacksonville) is one of those select few
counties that jurors and/or judges are most ready to condemn to death criminals. Critics of
the practice are quick to point out that frequent death sentences in Duval County has not
resulted in a significant reduction in crime in that county. Southerners seem to be
particularly fond of execution as a means to deliver both vengeance and justice. Where
Americans are fond of Testament eye-for-an-eye justice, and where a history of violent
racism exists strongly predicts where state governments are likely to execute offenders.
There are a number of studies that point to very disturbing trends indicating differential
treatment for people of color when it comes to the death penalty cases. Internationally, only
locations with a similarly devout religious population (e.g., Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan) and China execute more people than the US. The Chinese execute far more than
any other country, but most executed criminals seem to have committed political crimes.
The death penalty is not used in Europe, Canada or Mexico.
Proponents of harsh penalties for crime argue
that the plan has worked. Indeed crime rates
have fallen in the United States in recent
years. In 2016, the violent crime rate
nationally was about half of what it was in
1993. However, crime rates in the US have
not fallen evenly, nor does there appear to be
a significant correlation between states with
high rates of incarceration and declining
crime rates. New research suggests that
Figure 8-8: Rates for violent and property crimes have
fallen dramatically in recent years. Link to dataset via
locking up the worst offenders is effective at
Google Docs. Source: UCR
reducing crime, but long-term imprisonment
of lower level offenders does little to reduce overall crime rates.
By looking only at national statistics, one could still make an argument that mass
incarceration is an effective strategy. However, by examining trends internationally, or even
just looking at Canada’s experience, it’s easy to see that crime rates are dropping worldwide;
including in those countries, like Canada that have never used mass incarceration as a crime
prevention strategy. Some criminologists have pointed to demographic changes
accompanying the maturation of the post-war baby boomers as the main reason for falling
crime rates across the US and Canada. As Western nations, have aged, the number of people
in the prime criminal age-cohort has fallen dramatically.
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Analyzing Crime
Cool Map:
The Sentencing
Project.
An interactive map
and graphs webpage
allows a comparison
of a variety of prison
population data.
Criminologists who use a psychological epistemology tend to study crime and criminals by
analyzing the motives of individuals. Some criminologists think like geographers though,
and focus their efforts by studying crime at the group level. Crime geographers, and a
subgroup of criminologists, examine criminal behavior at the neighborhood, county, state
and national levels. By mapping crime data along with a variety of social, cultural, economic
and law enforcement data, crime analysts not only can begin to understand why crime
happens where it does, but they can also assist in making neighborhoods safer by helping
officials redirect scarce resources to locations where they are most needed. New York City’s
Police Department has employed a GIS-based, quality of life / crime data management tool
called CompStat for years with celebrated success.
Social Disorganization Theory
One popular theory that guides crime geography is known as social disorganization theory.
This theory, originally was built upon observations made by researchers from the so-called
Chicago School, who used the concentric ring and sector models (see Urban Geography
Chapter) to understand crime. According to this way of theorizing crime, place really
matters. In words, this theory argues that neighborhoods create conditions that encourage or
discourage crime. Of course, individuals within any neighborhood may choose to pursue or
avoid criminal activity, but numerous studies have shown that criminal behavior is far more
common among people from areas that fit certain demographic and economic profiles.
What factors predict an elevated crime rate? Poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and residential
mobility are the chief indicators, and they manifest themselves in ways that are relatively
easy to measure. According to this theory, in poor neighborhoods, with a heterogeneous
population, where people who move in and out a lot, residents are unable to exert effective,
collective social control. This is similar to a family where parents have lost control of their
children because they don’t know them well enough and have little leverage over them. In
stable, homogeneous neighborhoods, where people have more money, people have a greater
shared sense of right and wrong, and they are more willing to express their opinions to
neighbors, and more willing to defend their neighborhood (and property values) from those
who would commit crime. You are far less likely to “defend your neighborhood” if you
don’t have a sense of ownership over the neighborhood, and you don’t know neighbors.
One of the more important findings made by the chief architects of this theory many years
ago was that ethnicity was not a determining factor in crime. They came to this conclusion
by mapping different ethnic groups as they moved up the socio-economic ladder and from
neighborhood to neighborhood. What Shaw and McKay found was that recent immigrants
groups often suffered from high rates of juvenile delinquency when they lived in a specific
type of neighborhoods. When immigrant families moved into more stable neighborhoods,
the delinquency rate of juveniles in those families fell. For those families from the same
ethnicity that remained in the old neighborhood, the delinquency rate did not fall. Therefore,
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ethnicity could not be at fault. Instead, it was the cultural ecology (or social environment) of
the neighborhood that made a difference. Geography matters.
Kubrin, Charis E.,
Gregory D. Squires,
Steven M. Graves,
and Graham C. Ousey.
“Does fringe banking
exacerbate
neighborhood crime
rates?”
Criminology & Public
Policy 10, no. 2
(2011): 437-466.
Broken Windows
Theory relies on
the notion that
would be
criminals, and
others are
actively reading
the landscape for
cues indicating
acceptable
behavior in
specific locations
This text’s author used these very same theories to co-author a study analyzing the effect of
payday lenders on crime rates in Seattle, Washington. By using social disorganization theory
to conduct a GIS-based statistical analysis, it was possible to forcefully argue that 1)
neighborhood variables like the of percent young males living there, the jobless rate, the
residential instability of people, the population density, etc. strongly predicted crime rates; 2)
when those factors were held statistically constant, the addition of specific businesses or
institutions (in this case payday lenders), crime rates worsened significantly over time.
Similar studies have analyzed the effect of a variety of landscape elements on crime,
including parks, liquor stores, and schools. Most have found that neighborhood variables
affect the propensity of residents to engage in criminal behaviors.
Modeling Crime
Say for example, a person has petitioned your local government for a license to open a liquor
store (or casino, flower shop, or gymnasium) in your neighborhood. City officials and
concerned residents may want to estimate the effect such an establishment would have on
local crime rates. A geographic approach would call for an analysis of similar instances
occurring in the past or in other locations, perhaps in other towns or in other parts of the
same city. A common technique used by geographers is to first map the relative data and
then create a regression model of the variables. Regression models are statistical tests that
allow users to estimate the effect of one or more causal variables (e.g., income, education,
liquor stores, etc.) have on an outcome variable (e.g., crime rates). Modeling crime with
regression models is a well-established technique among social scientists. It not only permits
analysts to identify likely causes of criminal activity, but also by mapping the results of the
test, geographers can identify neighborhoods that have higher or lower crime rates than is
expected, based on predictions made by the regression model. Law enforcement officials can
use these maps to decide where to deploy additional resources, or to investigate more closely
the factors contributing to higher (or lower) than expected crime rates in a specific location.
Broken Windows Theory
A crime theory advanced by Wilson and
Kelling in the 1980s argued that the
appearance of neighborhoods was another
factor in pattern of crime in cities. Essentially
the thesis behind this idea, known today as
the broken windows theory, is that visual cues
on the landscape (abandonment, graffiti,
vandalism) signal to passers-by and residents
alike the level of social control and
community investment in an area. In
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Figure 8-9: Detroit, MI – The abandoned Michigan Central
rail station near downtown Detroit signals to all that this
neighborhood has little social or government authority.
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locations where visual disorder is evident,
people assume that behavioral disorder is
acceptable. At the very least, visual disorder is
a signal to would be criminals that if even if
local residents do not approve of disorderly
behavior (crime), there is likely to be little
consequence for those who commit crimes.
On the other hand, in places where it’s
obvious that people are caring for their
Figure 8-10: Chillicothe, OH – This town, after witnessing a
windows, lawns, walls, streets and sidewalks,
spike in opioid related crime, adopted a stop-and-frisk
criminals will guess that local residents
policy similar to New York City’s.
actively monitor the behavior of others, and
are likely to take action against those who violate the social norms associated with well-kept
locations.
Implications of this theory suggest that police and local residents should vigilantly maintain
visual order and orderliness. Windows that are broken should be fixed immediately. Graffiti
should be painted over immediately, trash should be removed quickly, and repairs to
buildings should be made as quickly as possible. Lawns should be mowed and kept tidy.
Neighbors and the police must also confront disorderly behavior, no matter how small,
whenever it is witnessed, because allowing even small transgressions of the social order
generates a signal to everyone that disorderly behavior is OK, and crime will result.
A number of police departments across the
United States embraced Broken Windows
Theory and adopted an associated crime
prevention strategy know as zero tolerance
policing. This policy gives police officers little
discretion in the sorts of crimes they actively
monitor. Every little crime must be stopped
by the cops. The idea behind zero tolerance
policing is that by arresting people for small
crimes (graffiti, petty theft, failing to pay
Figure 8-11: New York, NY – Protestors march to protest
“Stop and Frisk” policing. People of color often view the
subway fares, etc.) people will not engage in
strategy as racial profiling. Source: Wikimedia.
major crimes. In New York City, zero
tolerance policing became known as Stop and Frisk. Under this policy, the number of times
New York City cops stopped and questioned individuals on the street quadrupled within 10
years. Black and Latinos appear to have been disproportionately targeted for police
attention, leading to protests and lawsuits accusing police of illegal racial profiling.
Advocates of Stop and Frisk policies point to the dramatic reduction in crime in New York
City since the adoption of Zero Tolerance Policing there. Critics counter-claim that other
cities, including most that do not use zero tolerance policing have experienced similar
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dramatic reductions in crime rates. Other research suggests that policing neighborhood
blight, such as erasing graffiti, cleaning up garbage, fixing streetlights, etc., resulted in a
similarly positive reduction of crime rates, without widespread complaints from
communities of color about police harassment.
Braga, Anthony A.,
and Brenda J. Bond.
“Policing crime and
disorder hot spots: A
randomized
controlled trial*.”
Criminology 46, no. 3
(2008): 577-607.
Crime Mapping
The collection of electronic crime data allows law enforcement agencies to map each
instance of crime digitally. By plotting crimes on a map, along with data about
demographics, businesses, institutions, and known offenders, crime analysts using GIS have
created an entire subfield of geography known
as forensic geography or crime mapping. GIS,
in the hands of crime geographers, offers law
enforcement agencies a robust analytical
toolkit that can offer both long-term policy
guidance and short-term tactical advice.
Patterns of criminal behavior that might be
impossible to spot in a spreadsheet or in
stacks of crime reports are often readily
discernable once displayed with GIS. One
pattern mapping technique is called hotspot
Figure 8-12: Los Angeles, CA – This hot spot map of car
in the eastern San Fernando Valley shows that cars
analysis. One version of this technique begins thefts
theft is worst in high traffic areas, along commercial
corridors. Data Source: City of Los Angeles
with a simple point map of crimes, but the
GIS software calculates a number of small buffer zones around each point. Those areas with
multiple overlapping buffers are assigned a progressively higher score on a color-coded pixel
grid map, thereby enabling GIS users to quickly visualize the presence (or absence) of
multiple crimes in the region. Hotspot maps may also indicate the location of a nexus of
criminal activity (like a drug dealer) even when no arrests have been made at a location. GIS
analysts can also add to a hotspot map addresses of known felons, repeat offenders, parolees
or institutions, like pawnshops, liquor stores or strip clubs to help identify likely suspects, or
landscape elements affecting crime.
Perhaps the most thrilling application of spatial principles in the study of crime is geographic
profiling, a collection of techniques designed to identify spatial patterns in criminal behavior.
Serial offenses, like arson, murder, car theft, etc. can be mapped, and by observing the
criminal tendencies (modus operandi or M.O.) of offenders, analysts can predict where an
offender is likely to commit additional crimes, and even where the offender may live.
Criminal activity, like most other activity, is conditioned by the principle of distance decay,
therefore it can be assumed that most criminals tend to commit crimes near their home (or
another locus of activity). With crime however, there is a caveat: most serial criminals tend
not to commit crime in very close proximity to their home/workplace because they fear that
someone who knows them would recognize them at/near the crime scene.
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There are significant variations in the spatial
pattern of crime sprees that depend on the
individual serial criminal, the type of crime,
and the geographic peculiarities of the region;
but in many instances, criminals behave just as
the geographers’ theories suggest and GIS
analysts can use those theories to make
predictions with reasonable accuracy. An
assignment accompanying this text allows
students to do some geographic profiling with Figure 8-13: Hollywood, CA – A serial arsonist burned nearly
60 buildings during the New Year’s holiday 2011-12. Basic
data regarding the crimes committed by the
statistical techniques indicated where the perpetrator was
likely to live. Data Source: LA Times
so-called Hollywood Arsonist, who set nearly
60 fires over a span of several days in around New Year’s Day 2012. Far more complex
procedures are available to advanced students of the craft, including Rossmo’s Formula.
More Americans are becoming aware of the power of GIS thanks to publicity generated by
television crime dramas (like NCIS, CSI or Numb3rs) that occasionally feature geeky GIS
crime analysts helping detectives solve baffling crime sprees.
Illegal Substances
The production, consumption and transportation of illegal drugs and alcohol constitute, by
far, the largest arena of criminal activity in the United States and elsewhere. Thousands of
other crimes, from murder and robbery to burglary and petty thefts are also directly linked
to both abusive and recreational uses of legal and illegal substances. Drugs and alcohol
function as both a cause and an effect of crime. Their production and consumption exhibit
interesting geographic patterns, and these patterns help answer many societal problems.
Temperance Movements
Various states, counties, cities and even
townships have passed laws to restrict or
prohibit the production and sale of alcohol,
with varied success, since before the
American Revolution. Religious conservatives
and women’s groups started a number of
temperance movements during the 19th
century. They had little success. The alcohol
industry was important almost everywhere.
All cites, and even most small towns, operated
a brewery, winery or distillery. During this
time, alcohol taxes were an important source
of revenue for various levels of government,
especially during wartime. During the 19th
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Figure 8-14: Location Unknown – Men pour a barrel of
alcohol into a sewer while law enforcement officials look on
during the prohibition era. Source: Wikimedia.
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century, vast hordes of immigrants streamed into the US, bringing with them a variety of
European cultural traditions that involved copious consumption of wine, beer or spirits.
Many people argued that there was a strong association between heavy drinking and a
variety of social ills, many of which were associated with immigrant communities. In the
aftermath of World War I, when German-American (i.e. beer) political power was greatly
diminished, women’s political power had greatly increased, safe drinking water was finally
widely available, and a national income tax capable of offsetting the loss of alcohol taxes was
in place, the temperance movement finally got its way, and the 18th Amendment passed
making booze illegal in the United States.
This grand legal experiment lasted 13 years (1920-1933),
and this period, is known now simply as Prohibition. For
these years, Americans could not legally sell, produce,
import or transport alcohol. Overall, the consumption of
alcohol fell, and so too did the overall crime rate, but
enforcing the new law quickly became a massive problem.
There was still a large demand for booze and as a result
Bootlegging, the illegal transport and sale of alcohol, began
almost immediately. Widespread violation of prohibition
occurred because far too many people felt that outlawing
alcohol was unjust and beyond the authority of
government. Enforcing prohibition quickly overwhelmed Figure 8-15: Promotional Poster 1873 This poster featuring both German and
the police, the courts and the penal system. Corruption
English proclaims the virtue of wine as a
component of a happy married life. It
among the police was rife. Canada and Mexico had no
stakes a claim to the moral legitimacy of
similar laws, so they became major production centers for German-American values. Source:
Wikimedia.
booze that was smuggled into the United States illegally.
Owners of shuttered breweries, wineries and distilleries took up the cause to repeal the 18th
Amendment. Even doctors, many of whom relied upon alcohol to concoct medicinal
liquors (cough syrup, etc.) wanted to repeal the law. After more than a decade, the balance of
evidence seemed to suggest that prohibition had failed because the law did not fit the
prevailing sentiment on alcohol. It is from this experiment that the expression, “You can’t
legislate morality” emerged. Still lawmakers in many parts of the US continue to try.
White Lightning
During Prohibition, the illegal production of a potent corn liquor, known as moonshine
flourished, especially in Appalachia. This powerful clear alcohol gets its interesting name
from the tendency of those who produce and transport this liquor to work at night to avoid
detection. To aid in their clandestine operations, moonshiners tended to distill their liquor
in geographically remote locations, far from the prying eyes of law enforcement. Fast cars
were reputedly built to help bootleggers evade law enforcement officials, and legend holds
that this led to the evolution of stock car racing in the southern Appalachian region.
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Pillsbury, Richard.
“Carolina Thunder: a
geography of
Southern stock car
racing.” Journal of
Geography 73, no. 1
(1974): 39-47.
YouTube
Osborne Brothers
“Rocky Top”
A bluegrass song.
The second verse is
about moonshining,
soil and isolation.
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Although it has been nearly a century since
national prohibition elapsed, moonshining
continues apace in Appalachia. Several
reasons, rooted in the geography of the South
can be identified. First, there is a long history
of corn liquor production in Appalachia. The
Scottish and Irish that constitute a significant
part of the ethnic heritage of Appalachia,
Figure 8-16: Map – Kentucky counties by legality of alcohol.
brought the practice to the region hundreds
Data Source: Kentucky Alcohol Beverage Control
of years ago. Perhaps more importantly, local
versions of prohibition continue in many parts of the South to this day. Many people in the
South and Appalachia live within dry counties, meaning the sale of alcohol or at least some
types of alcohol is illegal in those counties. Oftentimes, only portions of a county are dry, or
there are exceptions for specific locations or events. In any case, banning the sale of boozes
in these regions seems to encourage the production of moonshine. Where alcohol is
permitted, often taxes on it are very high to discourage its consumption. These laws and the
associated sin taxes remain in place in the South largely because conservative, anti-liquor
Baptists, Pentecostals and Methodists are politically dominant. Ironically, because the
production of moonshine can be very profitable for its producers, both the bootleggers and
Baptists favor the maintenance of laws that have evaporated elsewhere in the country. It is
an ironic, but longstanding, political and economic relationship that favors the status quo.
Geography presents another set of factors favoring the production of moonshine in the
Upland South. The mountainous terrain and geographic isolation of the region prevent
Appalachian farmers from cheaply producing and transporting grain crops to populous
urban markets. Transportation costs in particular encourage farmers in remote locations to
turn to the production of alternative “agricultural goods”, capable of turning a profit in spite
of the added transportation costs (see Von Thunen Model – Agriculture Chapter). Because
transportation costs associated with corn liquor are far lower per unit of product than corn
itself, especially in Appalachia, there is a strong economic logic incentivizing alcohol
production there. In recent years, larger operations have been known to yield thousands of
gallons, allowing moonshiners to make thousands of dollars per week in a location with few
viable, legal economic options. Marijuana production faces similar conditions.
In a few locations within Appalachia, especially the karst regions of Kentucky and
Tennessee, rainwater is filtered through limestone bedrock giving it a chemical composition
that produces a particularly high quality spring water for whiskey production. As a result, a
number of best-selling brands of whiskey in the United States is distilled there. Not
surprisingly, some of these distilleries are in dry counties. Take for example, Lynchburg,
Tennessee, where the world famous Jack Daniels whiskey is distilled. It’s in a dry county.
Over 10 million cases of Jack Daniels are bottled in Lynchburg every year, but you can’t buy
a shot of it there.
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Marijuana
Perhaps the most widely broken law(s) in the
United States over the last 40 years are those
associated with the production and
consumption of cannabis, better known as
marijuana. Most people get away with
breaking marijuana laws for sure, but
according to the FBI, police arrest around 1.5
million people for drug abuse violations, and
about half those are for marijuana related
offenses. It is easily the biggest category of
crimes, outpacing even the number of alcohol
related crimes.
Figure 8-17: Woodland Hills, CA – The city of Los Angeles
legalized medical marijuana and hundreds of dispensaries
opened across the city in a matter of months. Many
businesses used outlandish colors and language to market
their product.
The prohibition against marijuana dates to the early 1900s, and it parallels in some ways the
prohibition of alcohol. Americans disagree about the dangers and morality of using
marijuana, and millions ignore the laws. Law enforcement efforts vary wildly across the
United States, and have varied through time. Some US Presidents have pushed federal
policy toward jailing all drug offenders; others are less enthusiastic about it. Several
politically progressive states have sought to decriminalize or even make marijuana legal in
recent years. Oregon and Colorado were the first to make recreational use legal.
The production of marijuana is an important
agricultural activity in many parts of the
United States. Marijuana production hotspots
have a lot in common with moonshining
regions. Both tend to occur in isolated areas,
especially mountainous regions. Good soils
and rainfall favor some locations more than
others. The lack of viable industrial or
agricultural alternatives seems to be the key
factor promoting marijuana production.
Appalachian states are important suppliers of
domestically grown pot in the U.S. Tennessee
and Kentucky rank high for both the
production of plants and the value per acre.
Figure 8-18: Map – States in New England and the West
Coast have moved to decriminalize marijuana in recent
Hawaii is also a major producer, partly
because it has a great climate and superb soils, years. Source: Wikimedia
but also because it has little competition from outside. California, particularly the Emerald
Triangle in the northwestern corner of the state far out produces the rest of the country. Like
Appalachia, the remoteness of northwestern California makes it difficult for law
enforcement to easily find illegal fields of cannabis. In locations where pot production is an
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important economic activity, law enforcement may have little incentive to aggressively
police the activity, especially in counties where law enforcement agencies budgets are heavily
reliant on taxes raised indirectly from the pot industry.
There is also a cultural-political variable driving California’s pot industry. Many of the
people who established the pot industry in the Emerald Triangle were “hippies” who had
moved away from the Bay Area in the 1970s when police fighting the war on drugs forced
production into more hidden locations. Over the years, the entire economy of northwestern
California has become dependent on the marijuana crop. It is clearly the leading industry
there, and the primary source of basic income for the region. The creeping legalization of
marijuana production across the United States represents a signficant threat to the
economic lifeblood of the region. Not only would growers from other locations, who live
closer to the major markets, be able to undercut growers in the Emerald Triangle via lower
transportation costs (which are not signficant), but more importantly the explosion of
competitors (supply) would drastically lower demand and therefore lower the price of
marijuana. Legal pot could be an economic disaster for the places that depend on
bootlegging marijauna. Because the Emerald Triangle is essentially a monocrop agricultural
zone, much like those places that rely solely on coffee or bananas, expanded competition can
be ruinous (see Agriculture Chapter 3). If pot becomes completely legal in the US, growers
in the Emerald Triangle may need to market their product differently. Marijuana producers
in the Emerald Triangle may find themselves using the same marketing techniques used by
vintners in Napa Valley, touting the quality of the local soils, climate and the skill of their
master cultivators.
Jedi Goggles.
Students in regions
where marijuana is
sold can “read” the
landscape of this
emerging industry,
comparing it to
mainstream medical
facilities, liquor
stores, coffee shops
and health food
markets for clues to
the nature of the
industry.
Medical Marijuana
Perhaps no place in the country witnessed a
more spectacular response to the legalization
of marijuana than Los Angeles. When medical
marijuana was legalized in 2004, hundreds of
marijuana retailers, or dispensaries, opened
within a few months. Some estimates put the
number at around 600. Dispensaries
outnumbered mainstream pharmacies by a
wide margin. By mapping dispensaries while
Figure 8-19: Map – The eastern San Fernando Valley had an
using pharmacies as a control variable, a
unusual number of marijuana dispensaries, especially
number of interesting questions could be
compared to standard pharmacies. Discrepancies such this
suggest that recreational users fueled the expansion of the
answered about marijuana sales in LA. For
industry. Sources: ESRI, WeedMaps
example, what does the map of dispensaries
tell us about who is using marijuana for medicinal purposes? For recreational purposes?
One could assume that if marijuana was sold primarily for medicinal purposes, then the
distribution of dispensaries should be very similar to the distribution of pharmacies. Instead,
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the map reveals dense clusters of dispensaries in specific neighborhoods (near college
campuses, e.g.) suggesting that marijuana is probably sold more for recreational purposes.
Jedi Mind Trick
Why would Florida
develop a prescription
drug problem for
painkillers? How is
this problem rooted in
the state’s geography?
YouTube Video –
The OxyContin
Express –
A documentary video
exploring the
epidemic of
prescription drug
abuse in the US.
Help Keep this Text Free
Opioid Crisis
The legalization of marijuana provokes
questions about how legalization invites
addiction to more lethal drugs, like heroin.
After all, the recent spike in heroin abuse in
the US emerged from the legal distribution of
opioid pain medications. In the 1990s,
millions of Americans were newly diagnosed
with chronic pain. Doctors treated as over 100
million people with a variety of painkillers,
including Percocet, Vicodin, Oxycodone and
other opioid-based pain management drugs.
Figure 8-20: US Map – Florida has been a hotbed of socalled “pill mill” doctors and pharmacies that make huge
profits from prescription pain medications that become
street drugs. Source: CDC
During this time, Florida, because there were
so many elderly people with age-related
chronic pain, became the pain medicine
capital of the US. The ability to hide abuses
from authorities in Florida led unscrupulous
doctors and pharmacists, who profited from
over-prescribing opioid drugs, to open shop
Figure 8-21: US Map – The rate of drug overdoses by state
shows a reasonably strong correlation with the rate of
in Florida. By 2009, doctors in Florida were
prescription making. West Virginia is a well-known
prescribing ten times the number of
terminus of the Oxycotin Express. 2013 data looks similar
Source: CDC.
Oxycodone or “Oxycotin” pills than doctors
in the rest of the country combined. Drug dealers from all over the eastern half of the United
States made regular trips to Florida, to visit dozens of pain clinics, where they would pick up
dozens of fraudulent prescriptions, many of which were filled by pharmacists in the doctor’s
office. Most of the drugs obtained in Florida were later sold on the streets, abused by people
taking them without a prescription. As a result, several transportation routes to Florida’s pill
mills, including air routes and Interstate 75 were dubbed, “The OxyContin Express”.
In recent years, more aggressive policing of pill mills, and a reformulation of Oxycodone
created a scarcity of many prescription pain pills, which drove up the price for them on the
street, and in turn invited those addicted to prescription pain pills to turn to cheaper, but
more deadly and readily available alternative opioids, like heroin and Fentanyl. As a result,
drug overdoses from opioids (prescription and illegal) have quadrupled since 1999 – along
with the total number of prescriptions sold for these powerful drugs.
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