Abstract
England and Wales have some of the highest incarceration rates in the developed world. Recent policy reforms have focused on developing alternatives to custody that offer credible protection for the public, and justice for victims of crime. This article uses unique detailed panel-level data acquired from the Ministry of Justice for all Police Force Areas from 2002 to 2013 in England and Wales to analyse the effects of custodial and non-custodial sentences on recorded crime. Our results suggest that non-custodial sentences can be an effective alternative to custody at reducing property crime but their effect is less consistent for violent crime. This suggests that non-custodial sentences are credible, cost-effective substitutes to incarceration.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 800-822 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | British Journal of Criminology |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 7 Dec 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J500057/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD).
Keywords
- Community sentences
- Incarceration
- Panel data
- Property crime
- Sentencing policy
- Violent crime
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine
- Social Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Law
Access to Document
- Abramovaite_et_al_Alternatives_to_custody_Bitish_Journal_of_Criminology_2019
Checked for eligibility 14/02/2019 The British Journal of Criminology, azy056, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azy056