Interactive Map of Murders in Allegheny County. Only 104 this year.

[gg]

Originally Posted by UKyank

If we stop incarcerating people for innocuous crimes & focus on the violent perps I see humanity in that.

True. Why isn't it that way?

[gg]

Originally Posted by jay5835

Every now and then...

I think the legal system is often correct or right, BUT I do think there is a percentage of very bad policing and or judging.

This is one of the worst news stories I have ever heard of and it makes you wonder HOW we can have prisons for profit at all!!!!!


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

[eschaton]

There have been a lot of studies which have suggested there are basically two kinds of criminals.

One group is psychopaths. They comprise around 20% of the prison population. They are generally notable because they do things like torture animals in childhood. They continue to be nasty, dangerous people as they grow older as well.

The other group - the vast majority of convicted felons - are essentially normal people, no matter what their rap sheet has on it. They were unremarkable as children, showing plenty of regular traits like compassion and love for their family. And unlike the psychopaths, they eventually "age out" of being criminals. Usually their banging days are done by the time they are 30, and they're totally no longer a danger to anyone by the time the are middle aged. Keeping them locked up for life makes no sense, because it costs us as a society a great deal of money, and has a minimal effect on public safety. Basically, think of this group of criminals as being normal people who fell in with a really bad peer group which had norms which go against most of society. Given all of us have some murdering culture of honor thugs in our background if we go back enough generations, it should be understandable how these types of cultures can continue to survive.

I recall reading a few years back how in California prisons (where the prison gang system is racialized) the black gangs almost invariably end up on the bottom of the totem pole, being perpetually pushed around by the white gangs and the two major Mexican gangs. Most of the black prisoners in the jails just have a few years to serve for slinging dope, and they can't compete with the level of reckless brutality of the neo-nazis or the suranos. Given it's pretty well known there is no particular racial bias to being a psychopath (it's inborn) yet blacks comprise a disproportionate share of our prison system, it stands to reason that a smaller proportion of black prisoners would be the sort of brutal psychopaths needed to stand against that sort of crap.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by gg

I think the legal system is often correct or right, BUT I do think there is a percentage of very bad policing and or judging.

This is one of the worst news stories I have ever heard of and it makes you wonder HOW we can have prisons for profit at all!!!!!


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

Damn. Hell of a story. I remember an ep of L&O in which Swoozie Kurtz played a corrupt judge who was essentially selling teens into a Prison-for-Profit in exchange for kickbacks. Just evil.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by gg

I really hate prisons for profit and feel it leads to corruption, so I am not convinced the legal system is always on the up and up.

I don't see how contracting out penitentiary services is any different or more corrupting that any other form of government contracting.

The key is to get good people in office to keep an eye on the contractors in this field and every other field.


The alternative to government contracting is to have it all done by virtually unifiable civil servants, and that has its own pitfalls.

[DoubleStraps]

I'm not sure what to make of this, but the very first murder location I clicked on was wildly off. The murder of Nicholas Grant appears on the map as having occurred on Noblestown Road in Westwood. However, he was murdered on Carrick Ave. in Carrick.

The reason for the discrepancy seems simple - he was murdered at the Circle C youth home in Carrick, which was shut down shortly thereafter. There is also a Circle C youth home or youth center on Noblestown Road.

That doesn't inspire much confidence in the rest of the map. However, this might have been a simple mistake that I happened to come across on my first click. It's an interesting map nonetheless.

[gg]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

I don't see how contracting out penitentiary services is any different or more corrupting that any other form of government contracting.

Huh?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

[gg]

Originally Posted by DoubleStraps

I'm not sure what to make of this, but the very first murder location I clicked on was wildly off. The murder of Nicholas Grant appears on the map as having occurred on Noblestown Road in Westwood. However, he was murdered on Carrick Ave. in Carrick.

The reason for the discrepancy seems simple - he was murdered at the Circle C youth home in Carrick, which was shut down shortly thereafter. There is also a Circle C youth home or youth center on Noblestown Road.

That doesn't inspire much confidence in the rest of the map. However, this might have been a simple mistake that I happened to come across on my first click. It's an interesting map nonetheless.

This is a good point. I posted it for a resource, but if it isn't solid, maybe it is a waste of time? Thanks.