Prisons in Paradise or Purgatory: A Comparative Analysis Between Criminal Justice Systems and Recidivism Rates in Norway and the United States

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/1n79h549c

Abstract

This honors thesis is a comparative analysis of criminal justice and prison systems between Norway and the United States. Norway has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world, because of their rehabilitative methods, while the United States has one of the highest recidivism rates in the world, because of their methods of punishment. The arguments presented here could help the United States in its efforts to decrease recidivism rates by working to rehabilitate and restore offenders, instead of punishing them. Providing resources like education and employment skills to offenders would help them assimilate to the outside world and keep them from recidivating. If the United States were to adopt a criminal justice system like Norway’s and provide resources to offenders to better prepare them for reentry into the outside world, then sociologists would see a decrease in recidivism rates as a result of more humanistic prisons that focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment.

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