Lisa Miller, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, will present at the 55Plus Club, on March 8, at 10 am at The Jewish Center of Princeton, 435 Nassau Street.
“The United States has the highest imprisonment rates in the democratized world.  What explains this? This talk offers an explanation that is rooted in, what I refer to as, the ‘racialized failure of the American state,’ which is rooted in the profound democratic deficit produced by the political institutions of American politics.  This deficit has produced a weak social welfare state that leads to high levels of serious violence, and a muscular punitive state that uses imprisonment as a policy response to a wide range of social ills, including crime.”  The talk concludes with proposals for overcoming some of these deficits and focusing political attention and debate on resolving social problems.
 Professor Miller’s research interests are in law and politics, criminal justice, social policy and racial inequality.  Her most recent book is The Myth of Mob Rule: Violent Crime and Democratic Politics (OUP, 2016) and her previous books is The Perils of Federalism: Race, Poverty and the Politics of Crime Control (OUP, 2008).