5 ms·
Little known fact; the prisons are primarily filled with dangerous criminals.
by hodwik 11y ago
Little known fact; the prisons are primarily filled with dangerous criminals.
- mellavora 11y agoand how many of them were dangerous criminals BEFORE we locked them up?
- hodwik 11y agoAccording to this study, most of them.
- antimagic 11y agoIt does make you wonder why the US has so many more "violent criminals" compared to other similar Western countries though...
- hodwik 11y agoIf you look at the violent crime offenders in the USA, more than 3/4's of them are locked up for "Aggravated Assault". According to Wikipedia, the definition of Aggravated Assault in the US is: -an attempt to cause or purposely, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to another negligently causing bodily injury to another with a dangerous weapon.[20] -causing bodily harm by reckless operation of a motor vehicle (vehicular assault).[21] -threatening another in a menacing manner.[22] -knowingly causing physical contact with another person knowing the other person will regard the contact as offensive or provocative[23] -causing stupor, unconsciousness or physical injury by intentionally administering a drug or controlled substance without consent[24] -purposely or knowingly causing reasonable apprehension of bodily injury in another[25] -any act which is intended to place another in fear of immediate physical contact which will be painful, injurious, insulting, or offensive, coupled with the apparent ability to execute the act.[26] If you want to investigate the difference, I suspect you should start there, since that seems to make up the bulk of our incarcerated.
- maxerickson 11y agoIt would be interesting to see how many first time felons had previously lost their job/vehicle/family due to short term stays in county jail (and of course why they were locked up).
- tptacek 11y agoPresumably the majority who were sentenced for violent offenses?
- encoderer 11y agoOk, how about: how many would've been violent had they not grown up in a culture where we locked up their dad, cousins and friends?
- hodwik 11y agoIf we didn't lock up criminals? I'm going to go out on a limb and say there would be more criminals.
- encoderer 11y agoSnark? I'm talking about the contribution of ghetto culture. You're a kid. Your dad spends time in prison for drug possession. That impacts your life. That is fallout from the war on drugs.
- tptacek 11y agoGhetto culture and unfair incarceration predates the war on drugs. It's important to address the core problem, not just its symptoms. You'll have a very hard time finding anyone on HN to take the other side of an argument about ending the drug war. Everyone here agrees with you. The author of the paper agrees with you. Drug prohibition is not a live issue on HN in general.
- hodwik 11y agoThat is not true. People who are for drug prohibition simply aren't as loud as those against.