Introduction

Eur J Crim Policy Res (2009) 15:36

DOI 10.1007/s10610-008-9086-3

Helmut Kury

Published online: 30 January 2009# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009

Over the last 20 to 30 years Western countries have witnessed an increasing criminological discussion about the development of harsher punishments. This trend has been spurred on by increasing public demand for more severity against offenders a New Punitiveness (see Pratt et al. 2005). Authors regularly cite the situation in the USA, Great Britain and other Anglo-American countries. There is no doubt that over the last 35 years the United States has experienced an increasing punitive reaction to offenders, which can be demonstrated by an increasing incarceration rate now the highest in the world. The incarceration rate has grown in such a manner through the introduction of more and more harsher penal laws and sentencing rules which have become well known in their own right, for example, Three Strikes legislation, Zero Tolerance and Mandatory Minimum rules.

This development has also influenced discussions concerning criminology and penal law in other countries. In Western Europe, the extent of the influence of punitive crime policy has been seen in a controversial light. If we speak about a higher degree of punitiveness in the USA, we have to acknowledge that there is a broad variety of punitive criminal policies across the different states, a greater diversity than decades before (see Hinds 2005). Some states are more punitive, others are not. The same is true in Australia. Interestingly, as Meyer and OMalley (2005) show, some countries do not show a punitive turn, like Canada, which is the neighbouring country to the north of the USA. Also Western European countries do not show uniquely the same development nor have they had a comparable increase of punitveness at a later time. Nelken (2005) shows a resistance to punitiveness in Italy while Shea (in this volume) analyzes developments over recent years and presents data which show a strong increase in punitiveness. Scandinavian countries are often cited as having low levels of punitiveness (see Green 2008; also in this volume). However, Bondeson (2005) discusses the trend that is also taking place in Scandinavia towards severer punishments.

H. Kury (*)

Freiburg University, Waldstrasse 3, 79194 Heuweiler, Germany e-mail: [email protected]

Introduction

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