Largely overlooked in research on criminal legal expansion is the rise of political polarization and its attendant consequences for crime policy. Drawing on theories of intergroup collaboration and policymaking research, I argue that network polarization—low frequencies of collaborative relations between lawmakers belonging to distinct political groups—negatively affects crime legislation passage by reducing information flows, increasing intergroup hostility, and creating opportunities for political attacks. To evaluate this perspective, I recreate dynamic legislative networks between 1979 and 2005 using data on 1,897,019 cosponsorship relationships between 1537 federal lawmakers and the outcomes of 5950 federal crime bills. Results illustrate that increases in partisan network segregation and the number of densely clustered subgroups both have negative effects on bill passage. These relationships are not moderated by majority party status and peak during the 1990s and early 2000s, a period when prison growth showed its first signs of slowing. These findings provide new insight to the relationship between polarization and policy and suggest that increases in network polarization may be partly responsible for declines in crime policy adoption observed in recent decades.

中文翻译：

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“约束的纽带就是惩罚的纽带：网络极化和联邦犯罪政策僵局，1979-2005”

在刑事法律扩张的研究中，很大程度上被忽视的是政治两极分化的兴起及其对犯罪政策的随之而来的影响。借鉴群体间合作和政策制定研究的理论，我认为网络极化——属于不同政治群体的立法者之间合作关系的频率较低——通过减少信息流动、增加群体间敌意和为政治攻击创造机会，对犯罪立法的通过产生负面影响。为了评估这一观点，我使用 1,897,019 名联邦立法者之间的 1,897,019 个共同发起关系的数据以及 5,950 项联邦犯罪法案的结果重新创建了 1979 年至 2005 年间的动态立法网络。结果表明，党派网络隔离的增加和密集集群数量的增加都会对法案的通过产生负面影响。这些关系并没有受到多数党地位的调节，并在 20 世纪 90 年代和 2000 年代初达到顶峰，在这段时期，监狱增长首次出现放缓迹象。这些发现为极化与政策之间的关系提供了新的见解，并表明网络极化的加剧可能是近几十年来观察到的犯罪政策采用率下降的部分原因。