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Why do you consider the police:population ratio in the US "very low"? It seems it's pretty much middle of the pack, and arguably on the high side for Western De
by microtherion 9y ago
Why do you consider the police:population ratio in the US "very low"? It seems it's pretty much middle of the pack, and arguably on the high side for Western Democracies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...
- mercutio2 9y agoThose numbers are state level police numbers. Aggregate numbers for actual officers on a beat are quite different for large countries. Most of Western Europe (according to the studies I’ve read) have significantly higher numbers of police in the community. To answer your larger question: Humans don’t respond well to small probability high negative outcomes. One common theory in criminality is that we want to optimize people’s sense that they’ll be caught, and then give smaller, more certain punishments. Basically, ideally we’d have many more police, many fewer prisons.