Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/216559 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 8163
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Constructing a new series of incarceration rates from 1860 to 2018, I find that Australia now incarcerates a greater share of the adult population than at any point since the late nineteenth century. Much of this increase has occurred since the mid-1980s. Since 1985, the Australian incarceration rate has risen by 130 percent, and now stands at 0.22 percent of adults (221 prisoners per 100,000 adults). Recalculating Indigenous incarceration rates so that they are comparable over a long time span, I find that incarceration rates for Indigenous Australians have risen dramatically. Fully 2.5 percent of Indigenous adults are incarcerated (2481 prisoners per 100,000 adults), a higher share than among African-Americans. The recent increase in the Australian prison population does not seem to be due to crime rates, which have mostly declined over the past generation. Instead, higher reporting rates, stricter policing practices, tougher sentencing laws, and more stringent bail laws appear to be the main drivers of Australia's growing prison population.
Subjects: 
prison
jail
incarceration
crime
JEL: 
I30
K14
N30
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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