Do you mean that 7% of violent criminals are incarcerated, or that 7% of those convicted of violen crimes are incarcerated, or that 7% of those incarcertated are there for violent crimes?
Here's an interesting table I found:
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/p09.pdf
> Table 7
> Estimated number of sentenced prisoners under state
> jurisdiction, by offense category, 2000 and 2008
In 2000:
Offense category 2000 2008 Change, 2000-2008 Percent of total change
Total 1,206,200 Violent[a] 620,000 Property[b] 246,000 Drug 263,800 Public-order[c] 72,400 Other/unspecified[d] 4,100
In 2008, and percentage of total change:
Total 1,365,400 100.0% Violent[a] 715,400 59.9 Property[b] 251,800 3.6 Drug 251,400 -7.8 Public-order[c] 125,900 33.6 Other/unspecified[d] 17,800 8.6
Note: Numbers were estimated and rounded to the nearest 100.
a) Includes murder, non-negligent manslaughter, manslaughter, rape, other sexual assault, robbery, assault, and other violent offenses.
b) Includes burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, fraud, and other property crimes.
c) Includes weapons, drunk driving, court offenses, commercialized vice, morals and decency offenses, liquor law violations, and other public-order offenses.
d) Includes juvenile offenses and other unspecified offense categories.
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"factoids" about the last decade:
- 70% of the state prison population is for violent or property crimes - 60% of the increase in the state prison population was for violent crime - The number (and obviously the percentage) in ther efor drug crime went down
So maybe I'm missing what this "7%" number is supposed to mean and why we should be astonished by it. AFAICT, most of the prison population *and* the increase over the last decade in the prison population has been because the addition of violent criminals.
/jordan