The Revival of Comparative Criminology in a Globalised World

While Downes (2011) rightly points out that criminology was born comparative, this comparative focus seems to have been lost until the late twentieth century. A waning belief in the post war penal welfare state, rising crime rates and increasing prison populations have altered this. Over the last two decades, comparative criminological research has been studying various dimensions of punitiveness. Therefore, it is timely to critically examine the extent to which the current evidence is capable of explaining convergences and divergences in penal practice. Important in this respect is to test the validity of the global explanatory models against local models in countries that appear to resist the dominant trend, such as the Netherlands and Canada. However, it is also important to compare differences between autonomous jurisdictions in one country, for example, the states and territories within Australia. Further, regardless this wealth of contemporary comparative research, some questions and issues have not been resolved yet and are subject for further analysis. Finally we discuss new directions in explaining penal policies and possible optimistic signs for penal
reform in the future.