Quote:
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Originally Posted by pennywise121
the ratio of a crime rate is a ratio, but we can mathematically represent that ratio as a percentage. if there are 3 crimes per 1,000 people, it can be represented as .3%. in my example (and, all these numbers are being made up, although i can look up the actual ones when i get home), a crime rate of 3.5% is equal to 3.5 crimes per 100 people. with 3,000,000 people, the number of crimes would equal 10,500. alternatively, 4% is 4 per 100, and with 2,500,000 people, number of crimes would equal 10,000.
in this way, even though the crime rate (represented here as a percentage) has decreased from 4% to 3.5%, the population size has grown by 500,000, leading to an overall increase in numbers of crimes from 10,000 to 10,500.
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Alright, that makes sense now, thanks for clearing it up!
And alansmithlee, there are many factors which go into crafting criminals. You cannot simply examine one without examining the other. Ignoring environmental variables is folly, because statistically people from low socioeconomic groups are overrepresented in prisons. They may be genetically predisposed to crime, but that's not all prisoners. They may have had a rough upbringing, but that's not all prisoners either.
Many times these people are given little to no recourse in behavior besides criminality. They have no highschool diploma, they had to drop out of highschool to support themselves or their family. They live in a very poor neighbourhood because they can't afford to live anywhere else. They may not be able to hold down a job due to emotional problems caused by these factors, or their lack of schooling.
They turn to crime because they are immensely strained by contemporary society's emphasis on wealth and status. They can't support themselves to the standards which would pull them even out of horrible poverty, so they are forced to turn to crime.
They are inevitably caught for crime, and thrown into jail. They serve their time in a community of prisoners who can offer them training as to what went wrong in their crime, and how to better beat the system once they are released.
They are released from prison to a society that has further stigmatized them, closing what few job opportunities they may have had in the first place (who wants to hire a convict). They are offered no help, no rehabilitation, they are simply expected to "not break the law" and operate within normal boundaries that didn't help them stay out of prison in the first place.
So they return to crime, get caught, go to prison, get released... ad nauseum.
It's a vicious cycle
I've just painted a very common picture of the general offender for you alansmithlee, many of these people need our help to get back on track as citizens of their country, and as human beings in a society that will continue on without them or not, but I'd rather they come along for the ride.
Leave no prisoner behind.
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I missed this comment originally:
"than waste money on salvaging damaged goods"
That's a horrible thing to say... I just don't even know what to say in responds to that. These people are humans.