ABSTRACT
A number of current developments in criminal justice are as depressing as they are obvious. Prison rates worldwide are increasing steadily, despite accumulating evidence that imprisonment for the most part does more harm than good. We explained the rise of punitiveness in western democracies in terms of penal populism which involves in interplay between public discourse, governmental intent and the perceived wishes of the electorate. At the same time, punishment in less democratic states, nowhere more so than in China, is of a scale that dwarfs punishments in most other parts of the world. At the same time, however, slow but steady progress is being made towards a diminishing use of the death penalty.
