Instability within stability: Conflicting trends beneath Canada's aggregate incarceration rate

Abstract

Contrary to the significant increases of incarceration rates in the United States and England, Canada has maintained relatively stable incarceration rates for the years 1978 2004. However, this overall stability conceals not only bifurcated trends of increasing and decreasing incarceration rates but also significant variation within these trends at the federal, provincial, and territorial sub-levels. As such, this thesis reveals -- on a theoretical level -- that Canada has not entirely resisted the shift towards increasing punitiveness. From a policy perspective, it is suggested that the competing trends must be monitored to avoid exacerbation to the point in which justice is brought into disrepute. This work also raises a methodological question of whether punitiveness is best measured in terms of admissions or counts data.