I thought I have read that with CompStat, precincts also started fudging what crimes they were writing up. Major offenses were getting written up by police as smaller offenses to "cook the books".
I wonder if it is because out law enforcement is better than in Africa or anywhere in the middle east for that matter. Think of all the rapes and murders, kidnappings and human trafficking that go on there every day, unpunished. Think of all the corruption and mobs in Mexico. Anyway, we know that there are far more people in North Korean labor camps.
I think that the real reason though is that we allow Blacks and Mexicans in America to make excuses. Left wingers do everything in their power to give them a leg up... lower educational standards for them, give them welfare and disability, tell white people that it's their fault and make blacks victims of slavery, change everything around them to make their lives easier instead of demanding that they work-or-starve like the dirt poor immigrants from Russia or Romania who arrive with nothing, can barely speak English, and work hard with their hands to eventually build a successful life. Stop making excuses for them. Stop telling them they can't succeed without your beloved programs. They once were a strong and proud people, now they have been reduced to taking handouts and lacking empowerment as a result. (why would they need special help unless they were inferior to begin with? - They can't do it on their own)
We allow their vulgar and misogynist language, rap and music to infiltrate our culture. Glamorize their thugs-life. Give them a pass when abandoning their kids (it's because of white racists you know). Do you really think that PC and social programs have benefited blacks in America? More people then ever secretly dislike blacks now because they can't even criticize them (with legitimate reasons) without the racism patrol coming out and ruining their lives.
I would go a step beyond just "diminishing returns". Higher than optimal incarceration rate actively creates more crime by way of 1-2 million broken homes.
I'm a little worried about this article. It seems to me that it might be emphasizing certain aspects of the data that tend to support a conclusion that is relatively popular in many circles. (Indeed, I'd like to see the U.S. imprison fewer people; but that doesn't mean we should distort the data.)
In particular, the conclusions are largely about the marginal effect of increased incarceration rates in the last couple of decades. So: we should not imprison more people than we are now. Fine. But that is not the same as saying that the huge increase in incarceration since the mid-1970s did not cause a large -- and highly beneficial -- decrease in crime.
According to the graphs, incarceration rates went up by about 60% in the 1990s and have remained more or less flat ever since. But rates more than doubled in the 1980s. This fact, and its possible impact on crime rates, apparently go completely unexamined in the article.
So don't think this article is up to the usual standards of fivethirtyeight.com -- unless I'm missing something.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 27.4 ms ] threadI think that the real reason though is that we allow Blacks and Mexicans in America to make excuses. Left wingers do everything in their power to give them a leg up... lower educational standards for them, give them welfare and disability, tell white people that it's their fault and make blacks victims of slavery, change everything around them to make their lives easier instead of demanding that they work-or-starve like the dirt poor immigrants from Russia or Romania who arrive with nothing, can barely speak English, and work hard with their hands to eventually build a successful life. Stop making excuses for them. Stop telling them they can't succeed without your beloved programs. They once were a strong and proud people, now they have been reduced to taking handouts and lacking empowerment as a result. (why would they need special help unless they were inferior to begin with? - They can't do it on their own)
We allow their vulgar and misogynist language, rap and music to infiltrate our culture. Glamorize their thugs-life. Give them a pass when abandoning their kids (it's because of white racists you know). Do you really think that PC and social programs have benefited blacks in America? More people then ever secretly dislike blacks now because they can't even criticize them (with legitimate reasons) without the racism patrol coming out and ruining their lives.
In particular, the conclusions are largely about the marginal effect of increased incarceration rates in the last couple of decades. So: we should not imprison more people than we are now. Fine. But that is not the same as saying that the huge increase in incarceration since the mid-1970s did not cause a large -- and highly beneficial -- decrease in crime.
According to the graphs, incarceration rates went up by about 60% in the 1990s and have remained more or less flat ever since. But rates more than doubled in the 1980s. This fact, and its possible impact on crime rates, apparently go completely unexamined in the article.
So don't think this article is up to the usual standards of fivethirtyeight.com -- unless I'm missing something.