Crime and Justice in the United States
and in England and Wales, 1981-96

by Patrick A. Langan, Ph.D., BJS Statistician and
David P. Farrington, Ph.D., BJS Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge

This report compares crime in the United States and England with respect to crime rates (as measured both by victimization surveys and police statistics), conviction rates, incarceration rates, and length of sentences. Crime rates as measured in victim surveys are all higher in England than the United States. Crime rates as measured in police statistics are higher in England for half of the measured crime types. A person committing serious crime in the United States is generally more likely than one in England to be caught, convicted, and incarcerated. Incarceration sentences are also generally longer in the United States than England.

Table of contents

• Highlights
• Crime rates from victim surveys
• Crime rates from police records
• Reporting of crime to police
• Police recording of crime
• Victim surveys versus police records
• Convictions per 1,000 population
• Convictions per 1,000 offenders
• Percent sentenced to incarceration
• Incarcerations per 1,000 population
• Incarcerations per 1,000 offenders
• Incarcerations sentence length
• Time served
• Percent of sentence served
• Days at risk of serving
• Justice system's impact on crime
• Justice system changes
• Racial disparities in incarceration
• Methodology
• References

Appendix 2: U.S. and English databases for the study

Part 1: U.S. database, tables 16-27

Part 2: English database tables 28-39