The Triumph of Militarized Crime-Fighting, 1981–1993

Abstract

Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush promoted the most decisive stage in the punitive turn, advancing militarized crime-fighting, mass incarceration, a war on drugs, and a political language of war and punishment. A passing fad for boot camps and a lasting embrace of S.W.A.T. policing were among the results. With little resistance from liberals, Republicans replaced the Cold War communist enemy with the criminal enemy.