Sometimes This City Sucks (Chicago, Belgium: population, counties, single)

[jonnynonos]

A lot of Eastern European countries (and Greenland!) were worse than us on the list.

It's kind of academic to argue if they are "first world" or not these days.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

It's kind of academic to argue if they are "first world" or not these days.

The whole term "First World" has pretty much ceased to mean anything since the end of the Cold War, since it basically meant "Wealthy nations that aren't communist."

[Chicago South Sider]

Originally Posted by nana053

World Map - Top Ten Countries With Highest Reported Crime Rates

Interesting....the numbers for India, Russia and Canada are suprising.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by Chicago South Sider

Interesting....the numbers for India, Russia and Canada are suprising.

Good point about Canada. It has roughly 10% the population of the U.S. and more than 20% as many total reported crimes. That's double the crime rate. (If this random-ass map on the internet created by people who don't know the difference between number of crimes and crime rate is to be believed, that is.)

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Chicago South Sider

Interesting....the numbers for India, Russia and Canada are suprising.

An accurate "crime rate" requires accurate crime reporting and logging, and I just don't think that places like India are catching everything that happens.

The U.S. has a lot of unreported crime too, but we do have modern systems in place to track crime and police departments that are at least somewhat trusted by residents enough that people will call them for help.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Plzeň

If this random-ass map on the internet created by people who don't know the difference between number of crimes and crime rate is to be believed, that is.

Yeah, I'd be a little wary of this map because of that.

It's also very difficult to compare crime rates between different countries based on a lot of different factors - i.e. rapes are drastically under reported in many countries/cultures. Also, since laws differ from country to country you have to slog through the data to make comparisons meaningful.

[Chicago South Sider]

Originally Posted by Plzeň

Good point about Canada. It has roughly 10% the population of the U.S. and more than 20% as many total reported crimes. That's double the crime rate. (If this random-ass map on the internet created by people who don't know the difference between number of crimes and crime rate is to be believed, that is.)

Yeah, I would expect Russia and Indian to be higher and Canada to be a lot lower. I do wonder about the source. Here's what the murder rates look like for various countries:

List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[urza216]

Originally Posted by Plzeň

Did you click on the link? Did you read it? I know it has some big words, and is 12 pages long, and you may have missed the day in school where they teach you how to read basic charts, but let me sum it up for you, using your favorite typing style: THE REPORT AT THAT LINK SHOWED SEVERAL COUNTRIES, INCLUDING SOME "FIRST WORLD" ONES, WITH HIGHER CRIME RATES THAN THE U.S. ACROSS SEVERAL DIFFERENT CATEGORIES. The U.S. was not ranked first in any category. Not a single one.

And yet you are incapable of naming one first world country with a higher crime rate than the U.S. Why?

Originally Posted by Plzeň

Yep, that's exactly what a creationist would say, though they may have had the decency to insert a comma or two and remove an apostrophe. (You did mean that they're the ones arguing with the creationist, right? If you meant that you are arguing with a creationist, you're not only wrong, you're delusional.)

"But" isn't actually a noun. "Buts" isn't actually a word and that's why I put the apostrophe there. "But" is only a noun in this sense because I'm talking about the word itself. No "if"s, "and"s or "but"s - That's exactly what a scientist would say to a creationist who is denying fact.

Originally Posted by Plzeň

First of all, they were denying this "fact":

Nice job not quoting my entire sentence. You're not the first person to misquote someone like that.

Originally Posted by Plzeň

You later amended your argument rather than admitting you were wrong. (This is a favorite strategy of yours, we've all noticed.) As has been pointed out, though, even among developed nations, the U.S. doesn't have the highest crime rate.

Here is my original post:

Originally Posted by urza216

America has the highest crime rate and yet it has more prisoners than any first world country. You say the justice system is "f***ing around" and yet let me repeat, we have more prisoners than any first world country. Obviously incarceration doesn't work. Creating a healthier society with social programs works. Like many European counties..

I see now how my sentence could be misunderstood..However, my whole sentence was comparing the U.S to other FIRST WORLD counties not just the end of it. I mean, that was the entire point I was making.. I was talking about prisoners and crime. I was comparing the United States to the same counties in both prisoners and crime. Whether or not the US has more crime than Mexico or Afghanistan is irrelevant because I wasn't comparing the United States' prison system to Mexico's or Afghanistan's.

America has a higher crime rate than any other first world county. America has more prisoners than any other first world country. My post - "America has the highest crime rate [out of any first world country] and yet it has more prisoners than any first world country."

Yuck. Saying the same phrase twice in one long sentence.

I typed that in a rush. My bad. Now can we just accept what I meant to say as what I meant to say and not how you interpreted it and move on?

[Chicago South Sider]

Originally Posted by urza216

And yet you are incapable of naming one. Why?

"But" isn't actually a noun. No "if"s, "and"s or "but"s is exactly what a scientist would say to a creationist who is denying fact.

According to the data I just reviewed, there are no countries with comparable economic development that have a higher murder rate than the United States. Even China has a murder rate 1/5 that of the United States. I don't know about overall crime rates.

[quigboto]

Originally Posted by Attrill

Yeah, I'd be a little wary of this map because of that.

It's also very difficult to compare crime rates between different countries based on a lot of different factors - i.e. rapes are drastically under reported in many countries/cultures. Also, since laws differ from country to country you have to slog through the data to make comparisons meaningful.

Also, what is a crime here, might not be a crime over there (Like one report said, 80% of incarcerations are specific to drug possession, a charge that hardly has consistency from one municipality to another, let alone city, state, country, etc.)

We are probably the most criminal country in the first world because our drug laws are archaic and useless in addressing real, actual crime.