As a result of loosing more of our freedoms and more and more personal behaviors outlawed by the hard line conservatives against crime, 60% of all males in the United States will be arrested for a crime in their lifetime. This number does not include ticketed citations such as traffic citations, jay walking, etc for which "booking into a jail" did not occur.
America also has the highest percentage of its total population incarcerated at any given time of all democratic western countries.
Do we really commit more serious crimes or do we outlaw more common behaviors than other countries? Some say 70% to 80% of all those incarcerated is due to substance abuse related crimes. Another factor is the privatization of our prisons. Obviously if there is a profit to the share holder to have high prison populations, then law enforcement might be encouraged to arrest people for minor offenses and then prosecuted aggressively to fill the prisons. I don't know, just asking.
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