Many people think prisons are all the same—rows of cells filled with violent men whom officials rule with an iron fist. Yet, life behind bars varies in remarkable ways. Drawing on economics and a vast empirical literature on legal systems, David Skarbek, associate professor of political science at Brown University, explains why life on the inside varies in such fascinating and novel ways, and also how social order evolves and takes root behind bars.
Professor Skarbek is the author of two books: The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System (Oxford University Press, 2014) and The Puzzle of Prison Order: Why Life behind Bars Varies around the World (Oxford University Press, 2020). This particular lecture was sponsored by the usual--the HOPE Center and the Duke PPE program, and by the Arete Initiative of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.
