Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/216336 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13024
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Compiling data from dozens of archival sources, I compile the most extensive series to date of the long-run imprisonment rate for five English-speaking nations: Australia, Canada, England and Wales, New Zealand and the United States. These series are constructed as a share of adults rather than the entire population, and I discuss why the latter can be misleading. In the late-nineteenth century, Australia had the highest incarceration rate of these nations. Today, the United States has the highest rate. With the exception of Canada, incarceration rates have risen markedly since the mid-1980s. These new series are made available in full, to allow other researchers to explore the consequences and causes of incarceration.
Subjects: 
prison
jail
incarceration
crime
JEL: 
I30
K14
N30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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