NCJ Number
218876
Journal
International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2007 Pages: 84-107
Date Published
June 2007
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This study explored the impact of political conditions on the use of detention and imprisonment in 100 of the world’s richest nations.
Abstract
Results indicated a consistent relationship between levels of murder and the overall adult imprisonment and detention rates in a country. Other results revealed a strong relationship between population heterogeneity and incarceration rates, which supports minority threat theories. Moreover, several indicators of political repression had consistently significant relationships with the use of imprisonment. The analysis suggests that countries with repressive political systems place greater restrictions on the press and use imprisonment to a greater extent than less repressive political systems. The authors suggest that when nations are weak, despot-type leaders turn to imprisonment to reduce dissent or maintain their privileged positions. Research methodology involved selecting the 100 richest nations based entirely on per capita GDP. These nations also had to have incarceration data available and have national populations of more than 500,000 people. Future research should focus on patterns of social control over time as well as on juvenile justice practices in politically repressive nations. Data on imprisonment were obtained from the International Centre for Prison Studies (2006) while data on state stability were gathered from the Human Development Index: United Nations (2206). Violent crime data were gathered from Interpol and from the United Nations while information on population heterogeneity was obtained from the Country Indicators of Foreign Policy. Data on political conditions were gathered from numerous sources including the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, the Index of Democratization, and Freedom House. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between the use of imprisonment and extra-legal variables, particularly political conditions. Tables, notes, references, appendix