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Approximately 50,000 British convicts were sentenced to servitude and forcibly transported to America between 1718 and 1775. This transatlantic market for British convict labor was a vast experiment in privatizing posttrial criminal justice. By the early eighteenth century, removal of criminals from society was seen as a more effective deterrent to recidivism than physical chastisement. Removal of noncapital offenders through mass hangings or employment as chain gangs in England was considered too barbaric and too politically risky. Removal through imprisonment was too expensive given the absence of penitentiaries designed for long-term incarceration. Thus, banishment overseas became the preferred policy. Convict transportees were given one of only three possible sentences, namely, 7 years, 14 years, or a lifetime of banishment (74, 24, and 2 percent, respectively), which in turn became the length of their servant contracts in America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which provided a market model of the convict trade and explained how economic forces shaped British penal policy regarding convict transportation between 1718-1775. Details on the model of the convict trade; Empirical analysis and hypothesis testing; Labor value of criminality; Political economy of convict transportation.