Also, Sam Bowles and Arjun Jayadev have an interesting paper called "Garrison America" in which they count guard labor in the US. They estimate that, in 1860, guard labor was 6% of the total US labor force; in 1948, this was 18.9%; in 2002, 26.1%.
On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 9:36 PM, Politicus E. <epoliticus at gmail.com> wrote:
> Cox asked "What evidence do you have that the level of violence is
> significantly greater now than (say) 70 years ago? Not anecdotal evidence
> from headlines but hard data. This is an empirical question regarding
> comparison of distinct periods of time. I doubt very much myself that
> violence has increased in any significant way." Since I enjoy data
> analysis, and searching for data, I decided to attempt to give a provisional
> answer.
>
> (a) Approximately 163 persons per 100,000 of the resident population were
> imprisoned in 1990; approximately 256 persons per 100,000 of the resident
> population were imprisoned in 2006 (Statistical Abstract of the United
> States 2009);
> (b) There were exactly 139 prisoners under federal or state jurisdiction
> per 100,000 residents in 1980 (this includes those on parole); there were
> exactly 501 such prisoners per 100,000 residents in 2006 (Statistical
> Abstract of the United States 2009);
> (c) Exactly 185 prisoners were executed, on the average, by a civil
> authority in the period 1930-9; exactly 23 prisoners were executed by a
> civil authority in 1990; exactly 98 prisoners were executed by a civil
> authority in 1999; exactly 42 prisoners were executed by a civil authority
> in 2007 (Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009);
>
> What might be be useful to know is total expenditure per capita, in real
> terms, on goods & services related to control, punishment, surveillance,
> etc., in aggregated form.
>