3 ms·

One possible cause of lower crime rates in the United States is the ever increasing size of the prison population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_i

• nfnaaron 17y ago
  Or, crime might be even lower than it is now if we stopped locking up some carefully chosen portion of convicted criminals. From the wikpedia article: "One partial, but significant cause of high incarceration rates is that the United States locks people up, some for a long time, for non-violent crimes. ... Within three years of being released, 67% of the ex-prisoners re-offend and 52% are actually re-incarcerated." I wonder how many of those locked up for some definition of non-violent/minor crime, or casual drug offense, and who are part of the 67% and 52%, would never have gone on to "re" offend and be "re" incarcerated if they hadn't been imprisoned in the first place.
  • anamax 17y ago
    You're assuming that the second crime is violent, which is curious given your assumption that a large fraction of prisons are in for non-violent crimes. There's also the problem that convictions and sentences understate the crimes committed by those convicted because of plea bargaining. In other words, the fact that someone was sentenced for a non-violent crime does not imply that they didn't commit a violent crime. And then there's the whole "gateway" theory. I don't know how all these things work out - I'm just pointing out that the plausible theories go all directions.