Penal Exceptionalism in Central Europe

The countries of Central Europe have for many years occupied a leading position in Europe in imprisonment rates and the use of imprisonment. The reasons for this may be connected to having been under authoritarian rule for many years. Another factor may be the penal populism that is influential throughout the world but has specific features in Central Europe. One such explanation, “penal nationalism,” argues that exceptionalism results from a distinctive brand of nationalist attitudes, especially towards the European Union. Social welfare policies, egalitarianism, income inequality, and residents’ trust in one another and the state, among other factors, have repeatedly been shown to be associated with imprisonment rates. Central European countries usually score low, sometimes very low, on these measures. Other more prosaic explanations relate to national laws and policies that increase punitiveness generally, and the use of imprisonment, even though that was not their purpose. None of these considerations by itself explains why imprisonment rates are, and long have been, comparatively high in Central Europe, especially relative to Western Europe, but provide elements from which fuller explanations may emerge.