81–86 of 86 posts
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What is the average time served in the US? And how do you count death sentences?
I take your point about the death penalty but it's application is extremely if not unusually rare in the US. I think around 20 people were executed last year.
The US justice system is obviously totally broken, but one would do well to remember the absolutely incredible side of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.
- The other Nordic countries are very similar socially even though they do not have this source of wealth.
- AFAICT[1] it's being spent on pensions, not infrastructure, education, or other social programs.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Nor...
The US justice system is obviously totally broken, but one would do well to remember the absolutely incredible side of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.
How much of the wealth fund is spent on incarceration?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Race is important because people tend to support more punitive policies against transgressors of other races[1]. The demographics and the history of racial tension in the U.S. means that resistance to the Norwegian criminal justice model go far beyond considerations of cost. [1] https://nicic.gov/race-and-punishment-racial-perceptions-cri...
There's also the significant disparity in criminality across races, as many other Western countries are discovering the hard way now too with the recent acute increase in diversity. Sociologists can argue until they're blue in the face about why that is (and I'm sure everyone reading this has their view) but it's a fact of which the Norwegians perhaps have the privilege of relative ignorance compared to the historica…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One would also do well to remember that Norway has a population of 5m, vs US at 325m. Norway is also 85% ethnic Norwegians (making for a pretty culturally homogenous society). The United States is operating at a scale that may break the Norwegian system. I don’t know that it would, but let’s see the Norwegian system work at five times the size (25m) before even entertaining the idea that it would work at 65 times the…
> Norway is also 85% ethnic Norwegians (making for a pretty culturally homogenous society). Can you cite a source that shows that this matters? It's pretty obvious how the difference in methods between the two prison systems can easily explain the difference in outcome, without having to jump to the 'race/culture'-card. Simply put, having prisoners cost money. You have to pay for housing them, and the opportunity cos…