Legal inconsistency

Sentencing is subject to a form of inflation, with the judiciary increasing sentences in a pattern inconsistent both with their peers in the same country and with those in other countries. This results in significant differences in the prison population (per 100,000 of the general population) in neighbouring countries (at 1989): UK 97.4%, Turkey 95.6, Luxembourg 86.5, West Germany 84.5, Portugal 83, France 81.1, Denmark 68, Belgium 65.4, Italy 60, Sweden 56, Netherlands 40.