Comparative penology in perspective

Punishment was initially viewed as a moral event implying that the condemned person was redeemed from status as a delinquent member of society through his or her punishment. This redeeming aspect of punishment was superseded by a penal instrumentalism that transformed a penal sanction into an indefinite process never reaching its end. Comparisons of prison rates between various countries show that they do not directly vary in proportion to external factors such as crime rates. They also suggest that crime rates may affect prison rates through their affective resonance rather than their quantum and that penal policies take a different meaning depending on what they are compared to. Stability of imprisonment rates in Canada results from its traditions of multiculturalism and minority empowerment and by the Canadian consensus for distancing the country from the punitive excess of its American neighbor. Finland's declining crime rates show that countries may change their penal policies by comparing themselves to their neighbors. Breaking down a country's isolation may be a condition for changing its penal policies.