DougR, I'll dig out some references tomorrow. For now I think I can say without fear of contradiction that for murder and rape the US is number one in the developed world. And the last time I checked, the US murder rate was rising, while the rates in some other countries (already lower than America's of course) are falling. Certainly this is the case in Germany and Japan. Most such countries don't have capital punishment, and again I think (but I'm not certain) that Germany and Japan are both in this category.

The US, as I have said, has a higher proportion of its population in prison than any other country.The UK imprisons a greater proportion of its population than any other country in Europe, but is still a long way behind the US. Until recently the UK still had capital punishment available for a small number of specific and extremely rare crimes, but has now abolished it completely. And no-one has been executed in the UK since 1965. (Statistical evidence gathered before and after confirmed that the death penalty had little if any deterrent value.)