Imprisonment and the Crime Rate in Ireland

Abstract

Between 1995 and 1999, the number of indictable crimes recorded in Ireland dropped by 21 per cent and the daily average prison population rose by 33 per cent. The Government has claimed that a causal relationship exists here: more prisoners means less crime. The purpose of this paper is to map recent trends in the use of prison and to explore the interaction between rates of crime and rates of imprisonment.