Table Of ContentVolume 2
THE AMERICAS
Crime and Punishment
around the World
© 2011 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Crime and Punishment
around the World
THE AMERICAS
Volume 2
JANET P. STAMATEL AND HUNG-EN SUNG, VOLUME EDITORS
GRAEME R. NEWMAN, GENERAL EDITOR
© 2011 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2010 by Janet P. Stamatel and Hung-En Sung, Volume Editors
Graeme R. Newman, General Editor
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for
the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crime and punishment around the world.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-313-35133-4 (set : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-35134-1
(set ebook) — ISBN 978-0-313-35135-8 (vol. 1 : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-313-35136-5 (vol. 1 ebook) — ISBN 978-0-313-35137-2
(vol. 2 : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-35138-9 (vol. 2 ebook) —
ISBN 978-0-313-35139-6 (vol. 3 : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-35140-2
(vol. 3 ebook) — ISBN 978-0-313-35141-9 (vol. 4 : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-313-35142-6 (vol. 4 ebook)
1. Crime. 2. Punishment. 3. Criminal justice, Administration of.
HV6025.C7115 2010
364—dc22 2010021159
ISBN (set): 978-0-313-35133-4
EISBN (set): 978-0-313-35134-1
14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
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Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
© 2011 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
This volume set is dedicated to the memory of
Ali Sabeeh of Omara, Iraq, who, while preparing the entry on Iraq,
was kidnapped, tortured, and killed in October 2007
To Amma and Nannagaru
© 2011 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Editorial Advisory Board
A dam Bouloukos, Director of Outreach and Partnerships, UNOPS, Copenha-
gen, Denmark
Ronald V. Clarke, University Professor, Rutgers University
Adam Graycar, Professor, Australian National University
Martin Killias, Professor, University of Zurich
Jeremy Travis, President, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
© 2011 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Contents
Acknowledgments, xi Bolivia , 53
General Introduction by Graeme R. Newman , xiii Brazil , 62
Maps, xxiv British Virgin Islands , 69
Map 1. Murder around the World , xxiv Canada , 73
Map 2. Imprisonment around the World , xxv Cayman Islands , 81
Map 3. Death Penalty around the World , xxvi Chile , 88
Map 4. Corporal Punishment around the World, Colombia , 98
xxvii Costa Rica , 109
Volume 2 Introduction by Janet P. Stamatel Cuba , 117
and Hung-En Sung , xxix Dominica , 126
Maps, xxxiv Dominican Republic , 131
Country Key to the Americas Maps, xxxiv Ecuador , 142
Map 5. Murder in the Americas, xxxv El Salvador , 150
Map 6. Imprisonment in the Americas, xxxvi Falkland Islands , 157
Map 7. Corporal Punishment in the Americas, Greenland , 159
xxxvii
Grenada , 162
Map 8. Death Penalty in the Americas, xxxviii
La Guadeloupe , 169
Guatemala , 176
VOLUME 2
Guyana , 187
The Americas , 1 Haiti , 194
Anguilla , 1 Honduras , 198
Antigua and Barbuda , 5 Jamaica , 205
Argentina , 9 Martinique , 216
Aruba , 18 Mexico , 221
The Bahamas , 22 Montserrat , 230
Barbados , 31 Navajo Nation , 238
Belize , 40 Netherlands Antilles , 247
Bermuda , 47 Nicaragua , 255
ix
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x | Contents
Panama , 263 Turks and Caicos Islands , 322
Paraguay , 270 United States of America , 328
Peru , 276 United States Virgin Islands , 339
Puerto Rico , 283 Uruguay , 347
Saint Kitts and Nevis , 290 Venezuela , 353
Saint Lucia , 297
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines , 300 General Bibliography, 367
Suriname , 307 About the Editors and Contributors, 375
Trinidad and Tobago , 313 Index, I-1
© 2011 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgments
T he contribution made by the volume editors to this project has been inestima-
ble. A project of this magnitude could not have been achieved without their un-
ceasing eff orts to fi nd contributors for large and small countries alike, to manage
their contributors’ contributions, and to edit them into the style and format re-
quired by a publication of this type. They helped overcome a number of crises we
met along the way. For this and for their always being on the receiving end of my
constant e-mails, I express my sincere appreciation. I thank especially Janet Sta-
matel for producing the world and regional maps from my sometimes less than
adequate databases.
Many authors have contributed to these volumes. Without them, of course,
this project would not have been possible. The volume editors and I express our
great admiration to our contributors and appreciation for their tolerance of our
editorial demands, which oftentimes must have seemed unreasonable. We apolo-
gize if your chapter ended up a little shorter than you had wanted. We bear full
responsibility for any misconceptions that may have occurred as a result of our
at-times heavy editorial hand.
F inally, we thank the Editorial Advisory Board members for being there when
we needed them.
—Graeme R. Newman
Albany, NY
December 31, 2009
xi
© 2011 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.
General Introduction
W e humans are fascinated by the diversity of cultures, climates, landscapes, and
peoples. It is part of our deep human heritage that we have never been able to
stay at home. Since the beginning of human time, our haplogroups have migrated
far and wide, stumbling on new fauna and evolving with them, adapting to cold,
hot, wet, and dry seasons and climates. Along the way, we have constructed so-
cieties and civilizations that have come and gone, none reaching perfection; each
having tried its own solutions to the problem of order; each constructing rules,
laws, customs, and ways of dealing with those who, for whatever reason, have
broken with the sacred commandments of order. Somewhere along the way, no
matter what the civilization or society, the idea of justice emerged, perhaps inde-
pendently of the need for order and, indeed, every now and again in opposition
to order. But whatever order’s relationship to justice, one thing is certain: order
is necessary for societies to survive. And embedded in this necessity is the inevita-
bility that individuals will break laws, rules, and customs and will, as a matter of
logic (and justice), be punished for it.
So law (so-called if it is written) and custom (embodying law and rules that
may not be written but that are “practiced” and conveyed orally) is universal
in all known societies. They are part of the “civilizing” process, which seeks to
hold in check the tendency of humans to devour each other. It is true that great
thinkers, philosophers, and even scientists have insisted—in the face of the over-
whelming evidence of history that stands against them—that humans, if only
given a chance, can or could work together for their common good without
being coerced to do so. But we know of no society anywhere in which this uto-
pian (if it is utopian) conception of human nature has produced a society with-
out laws or customs and their concomitant punishments. And surely humans
have had plenty of chances to construct such utopian societies. Yet each time
they try, order takes over, because we know that individuals only grudgingly
curb their own desires. They do not like the imposition of order, but they know
that they cannot survive without it and its accoutrements. Or at least, we may
say that life is much more comfortable if one gives into almost any kind of order.
This observation probably applies even to the worst of tyrannical orders, for it is
easier to remain in submission than it is to rise up and overthrow a very power-
ful authority. The 18th-century enlightenment thinkers upon whose ideas much
of the world’s criminal justice systems are based (whether civil or common) were
clearly of the opinion that punishment was a necessary evil, a price paid for the
xiii
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