Is Prison The Answer? Fear Of Crime In The US, Europe And Central-South America

Highlights

This article was created to support my 35th appearance on the nationally syndicated Armstrong Williams show focusing on worldwide fear of crime.

This article is available as a YouTube podcast.

Fear of crime and frustration with their justice systems are pushing many European and Central-South American countries towards aggressive policing and a reliance on increased incarceration.

But when you have supposedly liberal European nations doing it, it marks a dramatic shift in crime policies.

In the US, the USDOJ reports that rates of violence increased by 44 percent per the National Crime Victimization Survey. Per Gallup, fear of crime remains high in the United States.

Will the European and Central-South American experience influence crime policies in the US?

CrimeinAmerica.Net-Chat GPT’s “Top 10 Sources for Crime in America” based on primary statistical sources with trusted secondary analysis.

Article

I offered an article on how crime seems to rise and fall concurrently across a variety of countries.

Now it seems to be happening with the fear of crime.

Nations throughout the world seem more than willing to invest heavily in aggressive policing and greatly expanded incarceration. Fear of crime is notably increasing across many European countries, creating a staggering “perception gap” where public worry is surging despite verifiable, long-term drops in actual crime and homicide rates since the mid-1990s.

Fear of crime in Central and South American countries is fundamentally changing their justice systems.

US Fear Of Crime

Per Gallup, we within the US were recently at a record high in fear of crime, but the highest levels measured by Gallup receded in the United States. Still, the great majority of Americans express concern about crime.

Per Gallup, four out of five Democrats view crime as a serious national concern.

US Crime Statistics

Most readers know that there have been reductions in reported crime (most crime is not reported) per the FBI, but the USDOJ’s National Crime Victimization Survey states that rates of violence increased 44 percent in 2022 and have remained at that level since 2023 and 2024 (latest report). The increase is notable because elevated violent victimization rates have persisted for three years, rather than quickly reverting to earlier levels.

There have been numerous media articles suggesting that Americans’ fear of crime is unreasonable because of the drops in reported crime. However, increased fear seems to be happening in Europe and Central-South America as well.

The question is whether a 44 percent increase in rates of violence per the USDOJ’s National Crime Victimization Survey and high rates of fear per Gallup will have a similar impact to what’s happening with the justice systems in Europe and countries south of the border?  

Europe

The Guardian: Western Europeans believe crime is rising in their country, according to a survey, despite long-term overall crime rates falling across the region since the mid-1990s.

The YouGov poll of Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain found most countries trusted their national police, led by Denmark, where 74% of respondents said they had a lot or a fair amount of confidence in police nationally.

Between 57% and 64% of respondents in Spain, France, Germany and Italy also said they felt the same, but Britain was an outlier: only 43% said they had a lot or a fair amount of confidence in the police nationally, compared with 53% who had little.

But while most Western Europeans said they trusted their police, often sizeable majorities – ranging from 53% in Denmark to 66% in the UK, 78% in France and 80% in Italy – also said they thought crime was rising in their home countries.

Asked whether they thought violent crime was also increasing, the responses were largely similar: 52% of respondents in Denmark and 59% in Britain said they thought violent crime had gone up a lot or a bit, rising to 76% in Italy.

Central America

Crime trends vary considerably across Central and South America, though organized crime and violence remain major concerns in several countries.

There is little evidence that crime is falling in Central and South America. Powered by gangs and drug trafficking, these areas have a crime problem that some claim is horrific. We’re not addressing all Central and South American countries, but many seem engulfed in organized crime and violence at stunning levels.

The fear and anger have propelled many of these countries to take drastic action. El Salvador built a series of prisons, and the incarceration rate has exploded, yet the president of the country is now extremely popular for the actions he’s taken to improve safety. 

El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world. More than 70,000 people have been detained under the “state of exception”, an emergency measure granting draconian powers to the police and military that has been in force for two years.

Other countries have taken notice. 

Costa Rico is adopting El Salvador’s approach.  Per Reuters, Costa Rica will begin construction this year on a new maximum-security prison inspired by the El Salvador mega-prison at the center of that country’s crackdown on crime.

 

South America

Associated Press: In Peru, Crime was the top concern for voters.

Crime, particularly extortion, remained the overarching concern for voters. A 2025 national survey carried out by the state’s National Institute of Statistics and Informatics found that 84% of respondents in urban areas feared becoming victims of a crime in the following 12 months.

Experts attribute the increasing power of organized crime in Peru to the profits that decades-old criminal groups are earning from illegal gold mining in the Andes and the Amazon.

Per the BBC’s reporting on Colombia, “Right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella has narrowly won Colombia’s presidential election, an initial vote count shows, marking a dramatic shift in how the government will tackle the country’s internal armed conflict and violence.

De la Espriella, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, has pledged a military crackdown on illegal armed groups, drug trafficking and crime.

Per Reuters, “Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro is banking on a hard-line crackdown on crime to win over independent voters and shore up his base, as he looks to ​close the gap with incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of ‌October’s election.

The senator launched a public safety plan on Thursday, centered on 12 priority measures, including treating Brazil’s criminal factions as terrorist organizations, a move that found a receptive audience in Washington last month.

“They will be hunted ​down with force and intelligence,” Bolsonaro said during Thursday’s presentation in Sao Paulo. “Any armed ​criminal carrying a rifle will be taken down by our security forces,” he ⁠added.”

Per PBS, Chileans voted for a new president and parliament on Sunday in a contest expected to favor the hard right as candidates play on popular fears over organized crime and immigration.

Conclusions

Citizens in a wide variety of countries are tired of the violence (or the perception of violence) in their countries and are turning to aggressive law enforcement and harsh incarceration policies to deal with crime.

The problem and reliance on incarceration is just not a south-of-the-border issue. 

To combat severe prison overcrowding, Denmark (known widely in criminological circles for its liberal approach to limited incarceration) is aggressively expanding its correctional capacity. The government has launched a plan to add 1,000 new prison places across the country, which includes the development of a brand new 400-bed, high-security facility located south of Viborg. Much of this is driven by juvenile and young person crime.

Many European countries are responding to severe system overcrowding by building new prisons, expanding their existing estates, or even renting prison capacity in other countries to handle surging inmate populations. 

Per The Associated Press and PBS, “Organized crime expands, fueling more violence:

Latin America and the Caribbean last year saw their combined average homicide rate drop by more than 5% compared to 2024, with the median rate reaching about 17.6 per 100,000 people, according to InSight Crime, a think tank focused on organized crime in the Americas.

But there are a few key exceptions. Drug-fueled killings have increased in Peru and Colombia, the world’s top cocaine producers, as well as in neighboring Ecuador, whose major ports traffickers see as a gateway to European markets.

Last year, authorities tallied 2,400 homicides in Peru and 14,780 in Colombia, which were the most in each country since at least 2020. Killings rose a remarkable 31% in Ecuador year-on-year, to 9,216.

Gangs are blamed for much of the violence that began soaring in Ecuador during the COVID-19 pandemic, as cartels from Mexico, Colombia and the Balkans expanded their operations and hired locals, who set off a deadly fight over drug-trafficking routes. Their territorial disputes include prisons, where hundreds of inmates have been killed since 2021.

Fear of crime and frustration with their justice systems are pushing many nations towards aggressive policing and a heavy reliance on incarceration.

But when you have supposedly liberal European nations doing it, it marks a dramatic shift in crime policies throughout the world.