[jayasena]

So if a guilty verdict is almost a miracle, how in the world is it that we have a higher percentage of our population in prison than any other country (except for some with which we really don't want to compare ourselves)? This is a conundrum that has bothered me for a long time. Are Americans that much worse than other people?  :(

I can't posit this as anything more than conjecture (i certainly don't have anything more than limited anecdotal evidence) but, as a society, we seem to have an interesting mix of lax controls and harsh punishments. It's quite easy to acquire the typical ingredients of crime (guns, drugs, alcohol etc.) but beat people up with big sticks when those easily-acquired ingredients are misused. Most other societies seem to have better correlations between controls and punishments -- either both are lax or both are strong.

What we have does seem to be the most desirable combination in a world where everyone is a well-informed and reasonable individual, so I'm not sure I want things to change. Then again, we do seem to have an ever-increasing fraction of the population that don't fit the description of "well-informed and reasonable" (or maybe I'm just getting old...)

[jayasena]

So if a guilty verdict is almost a miracle, how in the world is it that we have a higher percentage of our population in prison than any other country (except for some with which we really don't want to compare ourselves)? This is a conundrum that has bothered me for a long time. Are Americans that much worse than other people?  :(

I can't posit this as anything more than conjecture (i certainly don't have anything more than limited anecdotal evidence) but, as a society, we seem to have an interesting mix of lax controls and harsh punishments. It's quite easy to acquire the typical ingredients of crime (guns, drugs, alcohol etc.) but beat people up with big sticks when those easily-acquired ingredients are misused. Most other societies seem to have better correlations between controls and punishments -- either both are lax or both are strong.

What we have does seem to be the most desirable combination in a world where everyone is a well-informed and reasonable individual, so I'm not sure I want things to change. Then again, we do seem to have an ever-increasing fraction of the population that don't fit the description of "well-informed and reasonable" (or maybe I'm just getting old...)