ABSTRACT
From a macro perspective, Australia shares many of the characteristics of other Anglo-Saxon countries that are associated with increased punitiveness, as measured by the imprisonment. From a political economy perspective, it is a neoliberal political economy as described by Cavadino and Dignan or, in the words of Lacey a liberal market economy. To do so conduct a descriptive and statistical analysis, relying on information provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), as they collect data on crime and punishment in all Australian jurisdictions, setting a high standard of comparability and reliability, but refrain from any further interpretation or contextualisation of their data. Crime sources available on Australian jurisdictions are the crime victimisation data as published by the ABS, which is, according to them, the best source for interstate comparison. The data are based on annual surveys that collect information through personal interviews about people’s experiences of crime victimisation for a selected range of personal and household crimes.
