The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

Got one bone to pick--one reason Japan, Switzerland, etc do not have the crime rate we do is that they do not have the civil liberties we do. For example, in Japan police are authorized to make so many warrantless "home visits" per year, just walk in and inspect your home...relative wealth and poverty is not the sole factor I think

Got one bone to pick--one reason Japan, Switzerland, etc do not have the crime rate we do is that they do not have the civil liberties we do. For example, in Japan police are authorized to make so many warrantless "home visits" per year, just walk in and inspect your home...relative wealth and poverty is not the sole factor I think

I dont know about Japan, but this is not the case with Switzerland, Swiss have more civil liberties then we do. Prostitution is legal, drugs laws are not enforced, and the owning of fully automatic firearms is very widespread.

I agree relative poverty and wealth are not the sole factors, but
there is a definite correlation between the amount of poverty in an area and the amount of crime. Most high crime areas and countries usually also have higher rates of poverty.

Japan has just as much murder rate as ours if not more but not with guns but with knives from what I have been told (could be wrong)

as for poverty I believe in a hand up not a hand out


NORM

Japan has just as much murder rate as ours if not more but not with guns but with knives from what I have been told (could be wrong)

as for poverty I believe in a hand up not a hand out


NORM

Murders (per capita) by country

United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people (or 4.2802 murders per 100000)

Japan: 0.00499933 per 1,000 people (or 0.499933
murders per 100000)

Switzerland: 0.00921351 per 1,000 people (or .921351 murders per 100000)

so actually our murder rate is like 8.5 times what japan's is and roughly 4 times what Switzerland's is

However Switzerland and Israel both have just as much private gun ownership as the US with far fewer murders, so as I am sure you will agree, Gun ownership is not a good predictor of the murder rate.

Here is where I am getting these statistics:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_m ... per-capita

As you can see from the stats, there is a very high correlation between the amount of poverty in a country and its murder rate.

With a few exceptions, almost all of the most murderous nations have large amounts of poverty in them.

I agree with the hand up, not hand out thing, unfortuately though I think in this country what happens all to often is that the only hands politicians extend is the one that makes them or their cronies richer.

I think the real difference between countries crime rates are cultural howerver. Japan is pretty much a monolithic culturally, they really limit the amount of imigration they have, Switzerland does the same, we on the other hand have 30 million undocumented illegals who have limited education, job and language skills alone living in our country.

Consider this:

Crime in Switzerland. Violent crime is almost unknown, and when murders are committed it is usually between asylum seekers. Like it or not, 44% of the persons convicted of criminal offences are foreigners, half of whom do not even officially live in Switzerland.

A predominant cultural tendency in Switzerland is responsibility, safety, and respect for the rule of law with people even hesitant to cross the street unless the walk sign is green. Switzerland has traditionally had a very low rate and reputation for crime, yet many Swiss are concerned the crime rates have been slightly increasing with the large influxes of immigrants

The US is not culturally monolithic at all, certain groups in this country promote a "gangsta" outlaw sort of existance. Its these same cultural problems that also seem to encourage and create a lifestyle of poverty imo.

edit double post

Edit triple post - sorry

research concerning violence and poverty has over-whelmingly concluded that violence is the major contributing factor to poverty, whether it is person to person, group to group, gov't to gov't, etc. in the source cited, note that most of those countries have oppressive gov'ts, and/or special interest groups( cartels, sects, tribes,organized crime, etc) none of which seek the good of the country or the people.
Americas murder rate is, again, over-whelmingly linked directly to illegal drugs. the first couple of months of this year in Arkansas, we had 49 gun murders. 48 were over drug deals gone bad.
the definition of poverty needs to be put into perspective. as the richest nation in the world, by far, we have several generations that have convinced themselves that luxury items are necessities. remember when kids were killing kids over designer name sneakers?
next....soapbox is open

Still gotta maintain my point-- European countries as a whole do not maintain the level of civil liberties that we do in the US, liberal policies regarding drug use, prostitution, etc notwithstanding. What I have in mind are things that have particularly to do with criminal enforcement, such as the presumption of innocence, right to trial by jury, right to counsel, right to dicovery, right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, right to habeas corpus, etc etc. I think, for better or worse, the US has more protections for criminal defendants, actual and potential, than anyone else, and that can't help but have an effect on crime rates

I am, however, willing to be educated on the facts if I am wrong...