What Happened to Tocqueville's America?

• Published in: Social research 2007-06, Vol.74 (2), p.251-268
• Main Author: Whitman, James Q.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 19th century; American history; Capital punishment; Concrete slabs; Contempt of court; Criminal justice; Criminal law; Criminal punishment; Criminal sociology. Police. Delinquency. Deviance. Suicide; Criminals; de Tocqueville, Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clerel; Democracy; European cultural groups; Foucault, Michel; History; Human rights; Imprisonment; Justice; Juvenile offenders; Law; Leadership; Lipset, Seymour Martin; Minors; Modernity; Prison sentences; Prisons; Punishment; Racism; Reinforcement; Reputations; Social aspects; Social research; Sociocultural Factors; Sociology; Sociology of law and criminology; Sociology of law and justice; States; Statutory law; Tocqueville, Alexis de (1805-59); Traditions; United States; United States history; United States of America; USA; Why We Punish: The Foundation of Our Concepts of Punishment
• ISSN: 0037-783X; 1944-768X; 1944-768X
• DOI: 10.1353/sor.2007.0046

[...] the reputation of the early republic was high when it came to punishment-remarkably high, considering that Europeans ofthat era often viewed other aspects of American society with suspicion or contempt.1 The 1820s and 1830s saw the publication of at least six significant books by foreign visitors to American penitentiaries, as well as numerous articles and parliamentary debates.2 The most famous of the foreign visitors to make the long journey across the Atlantic was of course the young Alexis de Tocqueville, who arrived in May 1831 with his friend and collaborator Gustave de Beaumont. Perhaps the most important acknowledgement of America's sorry place on the far harsh end of the punishment spectrum came from the Supreme Court in 2005, with Justice Anthony Kennedy's controversial majority opinion in Roper v. Simmons.