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International Incarceration Comparisons

On this page, the Prison Policy Initiative has curated all of the research about international justice system comparisons that we know of. For research on other criminal justice topics, see our Research Library homepage.

States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2021 Prison Policy Initiative, September, 2021“Every U.S. state, and the United States as a nation, is an outlier in the global context. No other country incarcerates as many people, including countries with similar rates of”
Keeping COVID Out of Prisons: Approaches in Ten Countries Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, May, 2021“The South African prison population declined after a period of relative stability prepandemic. Total prisoner numbers were in the region of 162-164,000 in the four years prior to the pandemic, but had fallen to 147,922 in June 2020.”
Locked in and Locked Down - Prison Life in a Pandemic: Evidence from Ten Countries Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, May, 2021“We present evidence of how life in custody changed as a result of the global health emergency, drawn from over 80 interviews with prisoners, ex-prisoners and their loved ones, which we and our research partners conducted before and during the pandemic.”
Authoritarian exclusion and laissez-faire inclusion: Comparing the punishment of men convicted of sex offenses in England & Wales and Norway Alice Ievins, Kristian Mjaland, March, 2021“Contrary to what might be expected, we find that the punishment of men convicted of sex offenses ismore paternalistic and interventionist in England & Wales, as well as more liberal--in that it respects the autonomy of the punished person--in Norway.”
How much have COVID-19 releases changed prison and jail populations? Prison Policy Initiative, February, 2021“The good news is that jail and prison populations remain lower than they were before COVID-19, but it's not obvious just how much of that is attributable to additional releases.”
Long-term consequences of being placed in disciplinary segregation Christopher Wildeman and Lars Hojsgaard Andersen, March, 2020“The results from matched difference-in-differences analyses show that Danish inmates placed in disciplinary segregation experience larger drops in employment and larger increases in the risk of being convicted of a new crime in the 3 years after release.”
States of Women's Incarceration: The Global Context 2018 Prison Policy Initiative, June, 2018“This report updates how U.S. women fare in the world's carceral landscape, comparing incarceration rates for women of each U.S. state with the equivalent rates for countries around the world.”
States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2018 Prison Policy Initiative, June, 2018“Compared to the rest of the world, every U.S. state relies too heavily on prisons and jails to respond to crime.”
Global Prison Trends 2018 Penal Reform International, May, 2018(This report analyzes trends in criminal justice and the use of imprisonment, showing that while overall crime rates around the world have declined, the number of people in prison on any given day is rising.)
Life imprisonment: A Policy Briefing Penal Reform International and University of Nottingham, May, 2018(The number of people serving formal life sentences has risen by nearly 84 percent in 14 years.)
Prison: Evidence of its use and over-use from around the world Institute for Criminal Policy Research, March, 2017“Whether you would end up in prison is also affected by who you are. For example, Roma people make up around 40% of Hungary’s prison population, despite representing only 6% of the national population.”
What Do We Know About the Association Between Firearm Legislation and Firearm-Related Injuries? Epidemiologic Reviews, February, 2016“Evidence from 130 studies in 10 countries suggests that in certain nations the simultaneous implementation of laws targeting multiple firearms restrictions is associated with reductions in firearm deaths.”
States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2016 Prison Policy Initiative, 2016“[P]lacing each state in a global context reveals that incarceration policy in every region of this country is out of step with the rest of the world.”
States of Women's Incarceration: The Global Context Prison Policy Initiative, November, 2015“When compared to jurisdictions across the globe, even the U.S. states with the lowest levels of incarceration are far out of line.”
World Female Imprisonment List: Third Edition World Prison Brief; Institute for Criminal Policy Research, September, 2015“This report shows that 700,000 women and girls are held in penal institutions throughout the world, either as pre-trial detainees/remand prisoners or having been convicted and sentenced.”
Death Sentences and Executions 2014 Amnesty International, March, 2015“The USA continued to be the only country to put people to death in the region, although executions dropped from 39 in 2013 to 35 in 2014 - reflecting a steady decline in the use of the death penalty in the country over the past years.”
World Prison Population List (eleventh edition) International Centre for Prison Studies, February, 2015“This eleventh edition of the World Prison Population List gives details of the number of prisoners held in 223 prison systems in independent countries and dependent territories.”
World Pre-trial/Remand Imprisonment List: Third Edition Institute for Criminal Policy Research, 2015“Close to three million [people are] held in pre-trial detention and other forms of remand imprisonment throughout the world.”
Improving outcomes for young black and/or Muslim men in the Criminal Justice System The Young Review, December, 2014“There is greater disproportionality in the number of black people in prisons in the UK than in the United States.”
Drugs: International Comparators Home Office, October, 2014“We did not in our fact-finding observe any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country’s enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country.”
Presumption of Guilt: The Global Overuse of Pretrial Detention Open Society Justice Initiative, September, 2014“The present global cohort of 3.3 million pretrial detainees will collectively spend an estimated 660 million days in detention-a terrible waste of human potential that comes at a considerable cost to states, taxpayers, families, and communities.”
States of Incarceration The Global Context Prison Policy Initiative, June, 2014“While there are certainly important differences between how U.S. states handle incarceration, placing each state in a global context reveals that incarceration policy in every region of this country is out of step with the rest of the world.”
World Prison Population List (tenth edition) International Centre for Prison Studies, November, 2013“This tenth edition of the World Prison Population List gives details of the number of prisoners held in 222 independent countries and dependent territories.”
Sentencing and Prison Practices in Germany and the Netherlands: Implications for the United States Vera Institute of Justice, October, 2013“Many countries in Northern Europe - such as Germany and the Netherlands - have significantly lower incarceration rates and make much greater use of non-custodial penalties, particularly for nonviolent crimes.”
International Growth Trends in Prison Privatization Sentencing Project, August, 2013“Prison privatization is most concentrated and most fully privatized in a handful of predominantly English-speaking countries. These include Australia, Scotland, England and Wales, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States.”
Death Sentences and Executions 2012 Amnesty International, April, 2013“While at least 682 people were executed in 2012 - in 2011, 680 executions were recorded - the number of people recorded as sentenced to death fell from 1,923 (in 63 countries) in 2011 to 1,722 (in 58 countries) in 2012.”
Reducing the use of imprisonment What can we learn from Europe? Criminal Justice Alliance, May, 2012“One of the most dramatic changes in prison numbers over the last few years has been experienced by the Netherlands. Germany, too, has seen a significant reduction in use of custody.”
World Prison Population List (ninth edition) International Centre for Prison Studies, April, 2012“Prison populations have risen in 78% of countries: in 71% of countries in Africa, 82% in the Americas, 80% in Asia, 74% in Europe and 80% in Oceania.”
Voting Behind Bars: An Argument for Voting by Prisoners Sentencing Project, June, 2011“The extreme nature of U.S. disenfranchisement policies can be seen in the fact that to the extent there is debate about this issue elsewhere, the only significant distinction is whether any restrictions at all should be placed on people [w/ convictions].”
Racial Disparities in Criminal Court Processing in the United States Sentencing Project, December, 2007“[This report] offers input regarding the nation's compliance, and need to reform current criminal justice practices and was submitted to the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.”
The Whitaker Committee Report 20 Years On - Lessons Learned or Lessons Forgotten? Irish Penal Reform Trust, July, 2007“It seems that it is not just the penal system, but the whole social system, that needs attention...”
World Prison Population List (Eighth Edition) Roy Walmsley, International Centre for Prison Studies, King's College London, February, 2007“Over 9.8 million people are incarcerated, with over 30% held in the Unites States.”
US Rates of Incarceration: A Global Perspective National Council on Crime and Delinquency, November, 2006“Some individual US states imprison up to six times as many people as do.”
Jails in Indian Country, 2004 Bureau of Justice Statistics, November, 2006“At midyear 2004 jails in Indian country held 1,745 inmates; 39% of inmates were confined for a violent offense.”
World Female Imprisonment List (Women and girls in penal institutions, including pre-trial detainees/remand prisoners) International Centre for Prison Studies, King's College, September, 2006“More than half a million women and girls are held in penal institutions throughout the world... [a]bout a third of these are in the United States of America.”
Welfare and Punishment: The relationship between welfare spending and imprisonment Crime and Society Foundation, 2006“[W]e find that countries that spend a greater proportion of GDP on welfare have lower imprisonment rates and that this relationship has become stronger over the last 15 years.”
Correctional Officers and Their First Year: An Empirical Investigation Correctional Service of Canada, November, 2005(Part 3 in a 3-Part report series following Canadian Correctional Officers through training and first year on the job.)
Correctional Officer Recruits During the College Training Period: An Examination Correctional Service of Canada, October, 2005“[A]n interest in interpersonal relations appears to be the best motivation for anyone wishing to engage in correctional work.”(Part 2 in a 3-Part report series following Canadian Correctional Officers through training and first year on the job.)
World Prison Population List 6th Edition International Centre for Prison Studies, June, 2005
Cross-National Studies in Crime and Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, September, 2004
World Prison Population List: Fifth Edition Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, January, 2004
Correctional Officer Recruits and the Prison Environment: A Research Framework Correctional Service of Canada, January, 2004“This study is based... on ground-breaking, large-scale research, which is a first in this corrections related field.”(Part 1 in a 3-Part report series following Canadian Correctional Officers through training and first year on the job.)
Comparative International Rates of Incarceration: An Examination of Causes and Trends Sentencing Project, June, 2003(presented to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights)
World Prison Population List (Fourth Edition) Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, February, 2003
International Comparisons of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2000 Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, July, 2002
World Prison Population List Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, February, 2002(third edition)
World Report 2002 Human Rights Watch, 2002(focuses on issues and legal developments rather than statistics)
World Prison Brief International Centre for Prison Studies, November, 2001
Prisoner Statistics, 2000 England and Wales Home office, August, 2001
U.S. continues to be world leader in rate of incarceration Sentencing Project, August, 2001
International Comparisons of Criminal Justice Statistics, 1999 Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, June, 2001
Victimisation in Seventeen Industrialised Countries: Key-findings from the 2000 international Crime Victims Survey the Hague, Ministry of Justice, 2000(Full text not available for download. See entry in Nat'l Criminal Justice Ref. Service for bibliographical info. https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=187198)
World Prison Population List (second edition) Roy Walmsley, Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, 2000
Crime and Justice in the United States and in England and Wales, 1981-96 Bureau of Justice Statistics, October, 1998
German and American Prosecutions: An Approach to Statistical Comparison Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 1998“charging, conviction, and sentencing rates for selected crimes”
Driving Forces Behind Prison Growth: The Mass Media Thomas Mathiesen, Professor of Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo, February, 1996“Today, rationality is limited to 'the secluded corners of the professional journals and meetings' while the media flood the public debate 'with dire warnings by the police and sensational crime stories.'”
Profile of Inmates in the U.S. and in England and Wales, 1991 Bureau of Justice Statistics, October, 1994
Americans Behind Bars The International Use of Incarceration, 1992-93 The Sentencing Project, 1994