Life Without Parole Sentencing
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 March 2023
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0326
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 March 2023
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0326
Introduction
Life without parole sentencing refers to laws, policies, and practices concerning lifetime prison sentences that also preclude release by parole. While sentences to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole have existed for more than a century in the United States, over the past four decades the penalty has emerged as a prominent element of US punishment, routinely put to use by penal professionals and featured regularly in public discourse. As use of the death penalty diminishes in the United States, life without parole (often referred to as LWOP) serves as the ultimate punishment in more and more jurisdictions. The scope with which US jurisdictions apply life without parole varies, however, and some states authorize the punishment even for nonviolent offenses. Beyond the instrumental purposes of retribution, crime control, and public safety, and beyond its symbolic functions in US culture and politics, the life without parole sentence is a lived experience for more than fifty thousand people incarcerated in the United States. Although the United States accounts for approximately half of the world’s life sentences, the contemporary rise of whole life sentencing should be seen as an international phenomenon. Recognizing this, the bibliography focuses on LWOP in the United States but recognizes developments worldwide.
General Overviews
The short list below identifies introductory material on life without parole sentencing, in which readers may find considerations of questions including the following: What does a life without parole sentence entail (Kazemian and Travis 2015, Mauer and Nellis 2018)? How is a life without parole sentence similar to or different from other life and long-term sentences or to a sentence of death (Ogletree and Sarat 2012, Seeds 2021, Sheleff 1988, Van Zyl Smit and Appleton 2019)? Can this extreme punishment be justified and what arguments are marshalled to do so (Appleton and Grøver 2007, Robinson 2012, Sheleff 1988, Van Zyl Smit and Appleton 2019)? What social and political circumstances give rise to the rapid growth of life without parole sentencing in the United States in the late twentieth century or stand as obstacles to its reform or abolition (Gottschalk 2013, Seeds 2021)? What is the prevalence and scope of death-in-prison sentencing worldwide (Van Zyl Smit and Appleton 2019)?
Appleton, Catherine, and Bent Grøver. 2007. The pros and cons of life without parole. British Journal of Criminology 47.4: 597–615.
DOI: 10.1093/bjc/azm001
The article provides an overview of life without parole sentencing and considers the primary rationales marshalled to justify life without parole sentences. The article confronts the question of whether a life without parole sentence—which offers no reasonable possibility of release and ignores the capacity for growth and maturation in prison—is any less objectionable, as a matter of human dignity, than a death sentence.
Gottschalk, Marie. 2013. Sentenced to life: Penal reform and the most severe sanctions. Annual Review of Law and Social Science 9:353–382.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-102612-134014
An insightful discussion of the politics that promote and sustain life without parole sentencing in the United States. The article also discusses obstacles to reform, which include the wide variety of crimes for which states authorize life without parole sentences, the bifurcated treatment of people convicted of violent and serious offenses from those convicted of low-level offenses, and contemporary “anti-mercy conceptions of clemency.” The chapter highlights the need for state-level research.
Kazemian, Lila, and Jeremy Travis. 2015. Imperative for inclusion of long termers and lifers in research and policy. Criminology & Public Policy 14.2: 355–395.
A comprehensive assessment of social science research on the experience of people serving life and long-term sentences. The article emphasizes that people serving life without parole sentences generally have a constructive and stabilizing impact on the prison culture as they age, despite the fact that programming for lifers is less available in many state systems. The authors propose changes in correctional programming.
Mauer, Marc, and Ashley Nellis (with Kerry Myers). 2018. The meaning of life: The case for abolishing life sentences. New York: The New Press.
The authors, leading experts in the field of life sentencing, provide an overview of the rise of life without parole sentencing in the United States and present a rigorous argument for its abolition.
Ogletree, Charles J., and Austin Sarat. 2012. Life without parole: America’s new death penalty? New York: New York Univ. Press.
An edited volume, featuring contributions from leading legal and sociolegal scholars. A pioneering work in the field and essential resource on life without parole.
Robinson, Paul. 2012. Life without parole under modern theories of punishment. In Life without parole: America’s new death penalty? Edited by Charles Ogletree and Austin Sarat, 138–166. New York: New York Univ. Press.
Assesses the theories of punishment and related arguments that have been used to justify LWOP sentencing—including general deterrence, incapacitation, and desert. The author determines that none of these rationales supports LWOP sentencing in practice.
Seeds, Christopher. 2021. Life sentences and perpetual confinement. Annual Review of Criminology 4:287–309.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-criminol-061020-022154
A review of scholarship on lifetime sentencing, organized into three areas: historical developments in the use and meaning of life sentences in the United States; the definition of life sentences as an object of research (introducing perpetual confinement as an analytical frame); and the lived experience and penal management of life sentences.
Sheleff, Leon. 1988. Ultimate penalties: Capital punishment, life imprisonment and physical torture. Columbus: The Ohio State Univ. Press.
Argues that debates over capital punishment have diverted attention from other punishments that are equally if not more severe—namely, life imprisonment and torture. In doing so, the author considers why life imprisonment was so long overlooked in the academy.
Van Zyl Smit, Dirk, and Catherine Appleton. 2019. Life imprisonment: A global human rights analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
In the first global survey of life sentences worldwide, these leading experts comprehensively address different forms of life sentences, arguments for and against life sentences, the prevalence and scope of life sentencing across nations and continents, as well as literature on the lived experiences of people who serve life sentences.
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- Active Offender Research
- Actus Reus
- Adler, Freda
- Adversarial System of Justice
- Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Aging Prison Population, The
- Airport and Airline Security
- Alcohol and Drug Prohibition
- Alcohol Use, Policy and Crime
- Alt-Right Gangs and White Power Youth Groups
- Animals, Crimes Against
- Anomie
- Arson
- Art Crime
- Back-End Sentencing and Parole Revocation
- Bail and Pretrial Detention
- Batterer Intervention Programs
- Bentham, Jeremy
- Big Data and Communities and Crime
- Biosocial Criminology
- Blackmail
- Black's Theory of Law and Social Control
- Blumstein, Alfred
- Boot Camps and Shock Incarceration Programs
- Burglary, Residential
- Bystander Intervention
- Capital Punishment
- Chambliss, William
- Chicago School of Criminology, The
- Child Maltreatment
- Chinese Triad Society
- Civil Protection Orders
- Collateral Consequences of Felony Conviction and Imprisonm...
- Collective Efficacy
- Commercial and Bank Robbery
- Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
- Communicating Scientific Findings in the Courtroom
- Community Change and Crime
- Community Corrections
- Community Disadvantage and Crime
- Community-Based Justice Systems
- Community-Based Substance Use Prevention
- Comparative Criminal Justice Systems
- CompStat Models of Police Performance Management
- Confessions, False and Coerced
- Conservation Criminology
- Consumer Fraud
- Contextual Analysis of Crime
- Control Balance Theory
- Convict Criminology
- Co-Offending and the Role of Accomplices
- Corporate Crime
- Costs of Crime and Justice
- Courts, Drug
- Courts, Juvenile
- Courts, Mental Health
- Courts, Problem-Solving
- Crime and Justice in Latin America
- Crime, Campus
- Crime Control Policy
- Crime Control, Politics of
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- Crime Prevention, Voluntary Organizations and
- Crime Trends
- Crime Victims' Rights Movement
- Criminal Career Research
- Criminal Decision Making, Emotions in
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- Criminal Justice Ethics
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- Criminal Records
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- Criminal Talk
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- Criminology of Genocide, The
- Critical Criminology
- Cross-National Crime
- Cross-Sectional Research Designs in Criminology and Crimin...
- Cultural Criminology
- Cultural Theories
- Cybercrime
- Cybercrime Investigations and Prosecutions
- Cycle of Violence
- Day Fines
- Deadly Force
- Defining "Success" in Corrections and Reentry
- Desistance
- Deterrence
- Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
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- Drug Control
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- Elder Abuse
- Electronically Monitored Home Confinement
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- Fear of Crime and Perceived Risk
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- Femicide
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- Fencing and Stolen Goods Markets
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- Forensic Science
- For-Profit Private Prisons and the Criminal Justice–Indust...
- Fraud
- Gambling
- Gangs, Peers, and Co-offending
- Gender and Crime
- Gendered Crime Pathways
- General Opportunity Victimization Theories
- Genetics, Environment, and Crime
- Green Criminology
- Halfway Houses
- Harm Reduction and Risky Behaviors
- Hate Crime
- Hate Crime Legislation
- Healthcare Fraud
- Hirschi, Travis
- History of Crime in the United Kingdom
- History of Criminology
- Homelessness and Crime
- Homicide
- Homicide Victimization
- Honor Cultures and Violence
- Hot Spots Policing
- Human Rights
- Human Trafficking
- Identity Theft
- Immigration, Crime, and Justice
- Incarceration, Mass
- Incarceration, Public Health Effects of
- Income Tax Evasion
- Indigenous Criminology
- Institutional Anomie Theory
- Integrated Theory
- Intermediate Sanctions
- Interpersonal Violence, Historical Patterns of
- Interrogation
- Intimate Partner Violence, Criminological Perspectives on
- Intimate Partner Violence, Police Responses to
- Investigation, Criminal
- Juvenile Delinquency
- Juvenile Justice System, The
- Kidnapping
- Kornhauser, Ruth Rosner
- Labeling Theory
- Labor Markets and Crime
- Land Use and Crime
- Lead and Crime
- Legitimacy
- LGBTQ Intimate Partner Violence
- LGBTQ People in Prison
- Life Without Parole Sentencing
- Local Institutions and Neighborhood Crime
- Lombroso, Cesare
- Longitudinal Research in Criminology
- Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
- Mapping and Spatial Analysis of Crime, The
- Mass Media, Crime, and Justice
- Measuring Crime
- Mediation and Dispute Resolution Programs
- Mental Health and Crime
- Merton, Robert K.
- Meta-analysis in Criminology
- Middle-Class Crime and Criminality
- Migrant Detention and Incarceration
- Money Laundering
- Motor Vehicle Theft
- Multi-Level Marketing Scams
- Murder, Serial
- Narrative Criminology
- National Deviancy Symposia, The
- Nature Versus Nurture
- Neighborhood Disorder
- Neutralization Theory
- New Penology, The
- Offender Decision-Making and Motivation
- Offense Specialization/Expertise
- Organized Crime
- Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs
- Panel Methods in Criminology
- Peacemaking Criminology
- Peer Networks and Delinquency
- Performance Measurement and Accountability Systems
- Personality and Trait Theories of Crime
- Persons with a Mental Illness, Police Encounters with
- Phenomenological Theories of Crime
- Plea Bargaining
- Poaching
- Police Administration
- Police Cooperation, International
- Police Discretion
- Police Effectiveness
- Police History
- Police Militarization
- Police Misconduct
- Police, Race and the
- Police Use of Force
- Police, Violence against the
- Policing and Law Enforcement
- Policing, Body-Worn Cameras and
- Policing, Broken Windows
- Policing, Community and Problem-Oriented
- Policing Cybercrime
- Policing, Evidence-Based
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- Policing, Privatization of
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- Polyvictimization
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- School Bullying
- School Crime and Violence
- School Safety, Security, and Discipline
- Search Warrants
- Seasonality and Crime
- Self-Control, The General Theory:
- Self-Report Crime Surveys
- Sentencing Enhancements
- Sentencing, Evidence-Based
- Sentencing Guidelines
- Sentencing Policy
- Sex Crimes
- Sex Offender Policies and Legislation
- Sex Trafficking
- Sexual Revictimization
- Situational Action Theory
- Snitching and Use of Criminal Informants
- Social and Intellectual Context of Criminology, The
- Social Construction of Crime, The
- Social Control of Tobacco Use
- Social Control Theory
- Social Disorganization
- Social Ecology of Crime
- Social Learning Theory
- Social Networks
- Social Threat and Social Control
- Solitary Confinement
- South Africa, Crime and Justice in
- Sport Mega-Events Security
- Stalking and Harassment
- State Crime
- State Dependence and Population Heterogeneity in Theories ...
- Strain Theories
- Street Code
- Street Robbery
- Substance Use and Abuse
- Surveillance, Public and Private
- Sutherland, Edwin H.
- Technology and the Criminal Justice System
- Technology, Criminal Use of
- Terrorism
- Terrorism and Hate Crime
- Terrorism, Criminological Explanations for
- Testimony, Eyewitness
- Therapeutic Jurisprudence
- Trajectory Methods in Criminology
- Transnational Crime
- Truth-In-Sentencing
- Urban Politics and Crime
- US War on Terrorism, Legal Perspectives on the
- Victimization, Adolescent
- Victimization, Biosocial Theories of
- Victimization Patterns and Trends
- Victimization, Repeat
- Victimization, Vicarious and Related Forms of Secondary Tr...
- Victimless Crime
- Victim-Offender Overlap, The
- Violence Against Women
- Violence, Youth
- Violent Crime
- White-Collar Crime
- White-Collar Crime, The Global Financial Crisis and
- White-Collar Crime, Women and
- Wilson, James Q.
- Wolfgang, Marvin
- Women, Girls, and Reentry
- Wrongful Conviction