[lbo-talk] Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Sun Sep 9 18:36:28 PDT 2007


Doug, responding to me:


>> The US has a lot of people in prison because the US has a lot of
>> criminals, end of story.
>
> I'm not sure of that. I thought that U.S. crime rates, aside from gun-
> induced murders, are comparable to Western Europe's.

You just said that the US has a rate of incarceration that's 8x France, and that 1/3 of it is violent crime?!


> We only stand out on murder. Or so I remember.

C'mon, don't you read your own posts? Murder in the US is like 1.2% of "violent crime" (murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault: all things I'm sure you'll agree ought to get you locked up!). If 1/3 of US prison population is "violent crime" and 1.2% of "violent crime" is murder, then I don't have to tell you that that no more than .4% of the prison population is in there for murder!

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/violent_crime/index.html

Also: gun-murder is ~70% of murder.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_06.html

If we "stand out only on gun-induced murders" then we don't stand out very much at all.

/jordan



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list