U.S. Incarceration and Sentencing in Comparative Perspective

Abstract Despite recent declines in correctional populations, the United States remains the world leader in imprisonment and non-carceral sanctions. An outlier, the United States has almost ten times more prisoners than do Nordic countries, seven to eight times more than in Continental Europe, and three to four times more than other countries in the same “liberal” penal regime. This difference flows predominantly from much more punitive sentencing practices in the United States. Drawing from the broader punishment literature, this chapter undertakes multiple empirical comparisons between European nations and U.S. states to understand the drivers of U.S. punitiveness. Data suggest that socioeconomic and political factors that explain penal variation among nation-states also explain differences among U.S. states. The U.S. states follow the same logic, but on a much higher absolute severity level. Factors explaining these level differences include a fragmentized government, localized democracy, power sharing in sentencing, an underdeveloped welfare state, and high levels of serious violence.