Why so many Americans are in Prison.

I'd be more interested to find out why Japan has so little people in prison? These numbers are perhaps the lowest in the developed world. Only 54 per 100'000 citizens. I'm sure Japan has its fair share of crime, or is crime really this low in Japan? If so, this proves that cities don't necessarily = crime as many Americans including myself believe. Germany is only 96 per 100'000 citizens. U.K. is around 125 per 100'000.

Honestly I think it has everything to do with the culture. We've made prison an industry in the United States. It's not simply a place to house criminals and let them go after a certain amount of time. It's a direct source of money for both the towns and states that host these prisons. On that note I bet crime would go way down if they legalized marijuana, prostitution, and made the sexual age of consent 16. I'm sure it'd go down like 60% in the U.S.

A side note, crime in the United States has actually been decreasing for the last 10 or 20 years, but the coverage of small crimes has gone up by 4'000%. Crimes are even going down in black neighborhoods. It's America’s culture of fear in my opinion.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Violent_Crime_Rates_in_the_United_States.svg

US New article about crime in the U.S.

It basically shows that crime has been going down in the states since the late 80's and early 90's with the passing of the national crack epidemic.
 
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I suspect it has as much to do with more punitive sentencing as it does with crime rate.

In the UK, despite falling crime rates, imprisonment rates have been climbing steadily for decades leading to a crisis of prison overcrowding. In the USA only about 12% of the growth in prison populations is due to an increase in crime. In both countries the rise in prison populations over recent decades seems to be primarily the result of more punitive sentencing.
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http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/why/evidence/imprisonment

Read more about the strong relationship between inequality and prison population at the above link.
 
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timhau said:
I think crime is the even more obvious answer.

:duck:
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punish.gif
 
It's why conspiracy theories are so prevalent in the cannabis community. When a state has an active financial interest in keeping drugs illegal, it's hard to not assume that this is the reason drugs are illegal.

Of course this isn't true, drugs are illegal for far more complex reasons. I doubt direct financial interest was amongst the original reasons, but it's likely a contributing factor to direct efforts to prevent legalisation.
 
QI believe it has something to do with the "Three Strikes and You're Out" policy.....

 
JihadJane said:
It's the price of freedom!
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You're half right. In a free society when you're in a open society like America the criminal element seems to get the wrong idea. You can say anything you want to but there are laws which need to be obeyed. You can make your living in an honest manner but selling dope and robbing banks will get you put in prison as will having sex with the underaged etc.

Americans believe in punishing their wrong doers and our punishment tends to be more severe than their european counterparts. We don't cut the hands off of thieves and we don't execute people for having the wrong religion. Other than that we're pretty severe.
 
Gaius said:
I bet crime would go way down if they legalized marijuana, prostitution, and made the sexual age of consent 16. I'm sure it'd go down like 60% in the U.S.
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FYI, age of consent is 16 in most of US states.

Awful lot of people seem to assume it is 18 -- probably because child pornography is a federal law, and defines cutoff age at 18, and because of the endless jokes about "she'll be 18 in ten minutes".
 
Mark6 said:
FYI, age of consent is 16 in most of US states.

Awful lot of people seem to assume it is 18 -- probably because child pornography is a federal law, and defines cutoff age at 18, and because of the endless jokes about "she'll be 18 in ten minutes".
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You sir are right.

Thanks for helping me out with that. Now is this the sexual age of consent? Or is this just the right of a person to date? Because I've heard the two were actually different.

I've read my states laws, it only prohibits sex with persons younger than 18 if the older person was in a position of authority, like a teacher. It's 17 though.

It's dumb to have a sexual policy of any older than 16. Parents must learn to assume that their children will start having sex at 16. I'd be willing to push that age back to 15. Once those girls get into high school, there's no going back. It's a simple as that.
 
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One small factor is the two party system. Neither party can suggest that we talk about reforming the criminal justice system because then the other party would scream "you're soft on crime!"
 
JihadJane said:
It's the price of freedom!
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I know you were joking, but to a large extent that may be true. Several years ago some prominent politician (I think it was John McCain, but I may be wrong) pointed out that US incarcerates greater proportion of its population than any other nation. He said "Either US is home to world's most evil people -- which I find ridiculous, -- or [US justice system] is doing something seriously wrong." He meant of course the latter, and I do not disagree. However while "US is home to world's most evil people" is indeed ridiculous, it may well be home to world's most unruly people. Americans tend to have little respect for law "just because it is law". They have to be convinced that law is actually just. And if they do not feel the law is just (such as speed limits, or prohibition of marijuana), they have no compunctions about breaking it. Combine this attitude with draconian drug laws, and you have a recipe for huge incarceration.
 
Gaius said:
You sir are right.

Thanks for helping me out with that. Now is this the sexual age of consent? Or is this just the right of a person to date? Because I've heard the two were actually different.
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I never heard of such difference. Age of consent is age of sexual consent.
 
Because it's pretty difficult to get out. I suspect the prisons actually try to make it difficult on purpose.
 
Here’s wrinkle to throw into the topic.
Does the drop in violent crime in the US have anything to with the increase in the prison population?
For instance are the inmates in for a drug crime also the (at least sometimes) the same people who would go on to commit violent crimes, or perhaps commit violent crimes apart from their drug activity?
 
Gaius said:
I'd be more interested to find out why Japan has so little people in prison?
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Because the Japanese tend to be shorter.

Or did you mean "few"?

Seriously, I think it's a cultural thing. From what I hear, the consequences of stepping out of line, even in little ways, are much greater in Japan. One mistake as a teenager can ruin your life.
 
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