Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
Criminal Justice and Criminology
Date of Award
5-2018
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Jennifer Pealer
Committee Members
Dustin Osborne, Chris Rush
Abstract
Hosting 22 percent of the world’s prison population, the United States is the number one country in the world regarding incarceration rates where 1 in 109 adults are locked up behinds bars and about two-thirds of offenders will recidivate within three years of their release (Durose, Coope, & Snyder, 2014; Kaeble, Glaze, Tsoutis, & Minton, 2016; U.S. Census Bureau, 2015; Walmsley, 2013). Sweden has one of the lowest recidivism and incarceration rates in the world where only 29 percent reoffend and 1 in 2,278 of their total population is behind bars (Kriminalvården, 2017; The World Bank, 2016). The purpose of this study is to understand the underlying reasons to these differences by comparing the U.S. and Swedish criminal justice systems and to find possible solutions of improvement to diminish the incarceration, recidivism, and crime rates in the U.S. Specifically, the policing, court, and correctional systems will be further compared.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Hedstrom, Josefin, "The American and Swedish Criminal Justice System: A Comparative Study" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3397. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3397
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.