Effect size is a thing. The US incarceration rate is >3× comparable countries. If the effect size of incarceration rate were similar to (or larger than!) other

Effect size is a thing. The US incarceration rate is >3× comparable countries. If the effect size of incarceration rate were similar to (or larger than!) other causes, the US would have to be consistently 3× comparables in other social statistics, like GDP per capita, inequality, or diversity, to achieve the same crime rate. But it's not, which means that the other factors must have greater impact on the crime rate than incarceration rate. Ergo, locking people up is not the most effective solution--there has to be something more effective out there.