Methodological Appendix to Imprisonment in Four Countries

• NCJ Number: 168951
• Author(s): J P Lynch
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 12 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/NCJRS; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Report (Technical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper describes the procedures used to compute the imprisonment and incarceration rates included in the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, "Imprisonment in Four Countries," February 1987 (NCJ-103967).

Abstract

Three types of rates are discussed: arrest-based imprisonment rates, the number of persons imprisoned per 100,000 in the resident population, and the number of persons admitted to prison during the year per 100,000 in the resident population. Rates are computed for robbery, burglary, and theft. The four countries involved are the United States, Canada, England and Wales, and the Republic of Germany. The arrest-based imprisonment rate consists of a denominator that includes all adults arrested in a given year and a numerator that includes all persons admitted to imprisonment during the same year. For a specific offense, the denominator is all persons arrested for that offense during the year; the numerator, all persons admitted to imprisonment for that offense during the year. Computing arrest-based imprisonment rates for the United States is complicated both by the decentralized nature of the government system and by the need to adjust for the prevalence of charge reduction. The problems of computing arrest-based imprisonment rates for Canada are similar to those for the United States. The computation of incarceration rates for England and Wales, as well as for the Republic of Germany, is reasonably straightforward because of the administrative centralization of the criminal justice system in each of these countries. Population-based stock incarceration rates consist of the ratio of the number of prisoners in custody on a specific day, or an average number of prisoners during a specific period, to the total population of the country. The study was able to estimate this rate for all countries, except Canada, and for most offenses. Canada does not routinely publish nationally representative counts of the number of persons in Provincial institutions by offense. 6 notes, an 18-item bibliography, and 6 tables