Incarceration and Prison Use

2010/12/04

Starting with this seminal article that defined how to compare prison use between different countries, Waller has worked to examine what effects trends in incarceration, particularly in and within affluent countries.  While in government, he produced a digest for policy makers that compared crime and incarceration rates between different countries.  His analyses were used for a Canadian government report on crime policy and the US Commission  on Criminal Justice published as the Real War on Crime in 1996.  It is the indicator developed in this article that is used by the International Centre for Prison Studies for world wide comparisons.

Prison Use: A Canadian and international Comparison (pdf)

Crime Prevention Digest

2010/12/03

Waller directed this report and a second report on best practices to highlight successful ways to reduce crime for Canada, USA, UK and other European countries. Analyses of many successful projects showed the positive return on investment – a dollar for prevention avoiding $7 or more in reaction. It identified the rigorous process (so often overlooked by researchers) to get these crime prevention programs put into practice where they would be successful and underlined what was needed from governments to sustain action. These publications provided a basis for the UN Habitat program on Safer Cities and the ECOSOC guidelines on crime prevention.