ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys research from two sets of social environments in the hopes of better understanding the practicalities of punishment norms other than mass imprisonment. It also surveys the empirical research surrounding cross-country incarceration rates. The chapter examines research of social environments wherein the relative absence of traditional governments has occurred in stride with a similar absence of punishments via imprisonment. It argues there are meaningful inferences to be garnered by viewing mass incarceration within a broader context that includes these two sets of social environments. While contemporary civil law nations rely less upon incarceration and more upon bureaucratic infrastructures, such mechanisms are essentially complements to imprisonment in a broader basket of criminal punishment types. Incarceration remains the default and standard form of criminal penalty around the globe. The greater rates of incarceration occur in stride with more hierarchically organized criminal justice decision-making patterns.
