Pittsburgh Business Daily

Why does America have the toughest justice system but the highest crime rates?

America has the worst crime rates in the world, yet it also has the toughest justice system in the world, and the most zero-tolerance cops in the world? What's that all about? I believe the fact that the justice system is so tough over there contributes to the high crime rates. It's like the peoples way of fighting back or something. You keep pushing them and they get angry with the system.

Public Comments

1. Criminals aren't in jails long enough. Kids watch the most inappropriate movies or tv shows growing up. Too much freedom.
2. Actually, we don't have the worst crime rate in the world. Not even close. Yours is pretty close to ours, son.
3. I think it has to do with the fact that we promise our citizens too much. They expect more out of life than they can realistically get. They watch TV, Movies, Songs, News...etc. They feel that they have a right to that "better life", some less than 10% of the population have. The Mercedes in the driveway, kids in private school, plenty of money, 500K house..etc. When they get into a hopeless position, they turn to crime in order to get those things or to hurt others that seem to have those things. Some of us realize that if we work really hard in our 9-5 job, we wont be able to afford everything that we desire. That's a bunch of bull.
4. Many people are arrested only to be let out of jail to soon. We have an imagration problem that is not being dealt with. Many other countries your are guilty until proven innocent, the U.S. this is the opposite.
5. Our tough on cime policies, along with the war on drugs, contribute to the prolems of crime, rather than alleviate them. Our prisons are overcrowded and draconian, so that when inmates are released, they are unable to become respectable members of society. Put a person away for a number of years and treat them as little more than animals and they are unlikely to come out of the experience better people. It is often claimed that rehabilitation has been tried and it failed. This isn't true. There has never been enough money alloted to rehabilitation or enough effort put into turning out people who can function as law-abiding citizens when released. Punishment is still seen as the only solution to crime, even though all the draconian measures taken over the past few decades has failed to reduce the crime rate. Maybe we should have given rehabilitation as much time and funding as we have punishment. We might have accomplished something better. Cries for longer sentences and tougher prison policies are based on fear and the emotional need for revenge. Crime needs to be looked at more realistically, with the importance placed on reducing recidivism and making former inmates into productive citizens after release.
6. Our justice system is riddled with weak links from the bottom up but we certainly don't have the highest crime rates. For sheer numbers, possibly but not per capita. As for Allysum 1, when we switched from a penal system to a correctional one as part Johnson's "Great Society" program, we laid the groundwork for the destruction of families and neighborhoods and higher crime rates. The misconception is that criminals are just misunderstood and troubled souls. Many are rabid predators that must be removed from society, not excused because mommy or daddy didn't love them enough.
7. With more laws being made and passed all the time I see why we have high crime rates. Who knows maybe next year a law will be passed saying that it's illegal to walk using your left foot first, or change your TV channel without getting written permission from 30 people and notarized by the government.