Crime > Sentence Length: Countries Compared

Author: Ian Graham, Staff Editor

Do long prison sentences deter criminals or are they an indication of a severe crime problem?

Colombia has the longest average prison sentence length, at 137 years. It also leads the world in kidnappings (total, per $ GDP and per capita), murders per capita, mortality due to assaults by explosive material(total and per capita), mortality due to assaults by other and unspecified firearm discharge per capita, and mortality due to assaults by sharp objects per capita.

Colombia is second for murders with firearms (total and per capita) and third for total murders. It is also in the top five for mortality due to assault in 18 of the 22 recorded categories.

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DEFINITION: Total average sentence length served.

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CONTENTS

MAP
INTERESTING
Q+A

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Totals

#	COUNTRY	AMOUNT	DATE
1	Romania	37,488	2002
2	Burma	16,616	2002
3	Panama	10,103	2002
4	Finland	2,762	2002
5	Nepal	2,216	2002
6	Kuwait	2,183	2002
7	Venezuela	1,422	2002
8	Oman	1,403	2002
9	Morocco	736	2002
10	Maldives	707	2002
11	Colombia	137	2002
12	Moldova	93	2002
13	Suriname	91	2002
14	Qatar	80	2002
15	Croatia	71.2	2002
=16	Botswana	60	2002
=16	Georgia	60	2002
18	Latvia	58	2002
19	Estonia	55	2002
=20	Hungary	52	2002
=20	Lithuania	52	2002
22	Belarus	51	2002
23	South Africa	48.08	2002
24	Dominican Republic	48	2002
25	Australia	41.8	2002
26	Czech Republic	39	2002
27	United Kingdom	38.6	2002
28	Sweden	36	2002
29	Spain	30	2002
30	United States	29	2002
=31	Philippines	24	2002
=31	Papua New Guinea	24	2002
=31	Zimbabwe	24	2002
34	Portugal	21.7	2002
35	Albania	10	2002
=36	Mauritius	9	2002
=36	New Zealand	9	2002
=36	Turkey	9	2002
39	Netherlands	7	2002
40	Hong Kong	6	2002
41	Ukraine	5	2002
42	Iceland	4.7	2002
43	Denmark	3	2002
=44	Montserrat	2	2002
=44	Jamaica	2	2002
46	Canada	1	2002

Citation

"Countries Compared by Crime > Sentence Length. International Statistics at NationMaster.com", The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention). Aggregates compiled by NationMaster. Retrieved from http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Sentence-Length

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