Week #9- Crime in International Perspective - Lynch Flashcards
What shows differences in punishment across nations?
o Most often used indicators of the severity of punishments in a society is the incarceration rate
• Importation indicator, but has limitations
o A nation that inflicts higher sanctions for same offence is more punitive
What is the problem with population based incarceration rates?
o Population based incarceration rates don’t consider variation in offence, such as the volume of crime in a society or differences in the types of crimes committed
What is the most punitive nation in the world?
o US is clearly the most punitive nation in the world
o US incarceration rate increased 12% between 1999-2008
• All nations of which US is compared increased as well
What did lynch study?
o Study focused on a number of similarly defined offenses across nations, and saw how sentencing differed
What did the study lynch find?
o US is not uniformly more likely to incarcerate persons convicted of crimes than other industrialized nations
• Uses incarceration similarly to other industrialized nations
• Longer sentences on persons sentenced to incarceration than other industrialized nations
Explain the role of drug crimes in prison populations?
o Drug crimes comprise substantial proportion of the prison population in the US and other Nations
o Differential treatment of drug use and sale can greatly help explain prison populations
o US is not unique in the extent of drug offending or the degree to which offences are recorded by police
o Dutch have decriminalized use of drugs, so this affects rates
What is the role of supervision in incarceration rates?
o Supervision = period after serving a custodial sentence in which the former inmate is under the supervision of a parole or probation officer who monitors their behaviour
• Also refers to community that supervises
o Back door into prison, potentially important determinant
o US more likely to send people back in than England and Wales for breaking parole
o Greater attention should be given to the role of supervision policies in generating differences in prison populations
