Re: SOC: Crime rates down again

Carl Feynman (carlf@atg.com)
Fri, 06 Jun 1997 13:23:39 -0400


At 09:12 AM 6/6/97 -0700, Max More wrote:
>At 06:46 AM 6/6/97 -0400, you wrote:
>>>>>
> Demographics + incredible US incarceration rate!
>
>Except that violent people still do violence in jail!

Yes, but it's much less likely to lead to a report that shows up in the
statistics. A fistfight in a McDonalds will lead to a police report and
possibly arrests. A fistfight in a prison cafeteria leads to some guys
getting clubbed by guards and dragged off to solitary. Also, the returns to
property crime (mugging, theft, etc) are far less in prison. Finally, some
crimes are simply impossible in prison: arson, mixed-sex rape and kidnapping
spring to mind.

The FBI Uniform Crime Reports are available at
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/socsci/crime/. Using them I discovered that New
York, where Perry lives, has 18 times the per-capita murder rate of
Middlesex County, Massachusetts, where I live. Sorry, Perry, I still like
it here better.

--CarlF