Replies

France 100.000 inhabitants => 90 persons jailed

USA 100.000 inhabitants => 672 persons jailed

The number of people in prison is in part a reflection of a justice system that is draconian compared to most of Europe. The US not only practices the death penalty in several states, but is simply much harsher when it comes to sentencing for MANY crimes.

Example: Rape, child molestation, murder, drug offenses, DUI/DWI.

http://www.jessicaslaw2006.com States that have Jessica's law in place (And many do) will automatically slap a MINIMUM 15 year (JAHRE!) to 25 years on a child molester (Freiheitsstraffe nicht Bewaegrung). You will not see this sort of sentencing in Germany for this type of crime.

http://www.lawinfo.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/Client.lawarea/categoryid/139 Three strike rules impose an automatic 25 years sentence for an offender who commits a third crime.

This type of sentencing gives you large prison populations.

--

As to your examples- Let me throw out mine. Month 4 in Germany my wife car had its rims stolen. My father is in the State Department and works in Frankfurt today. His house has been broken into TWICE. I today live in a Plano Texas, before that in Germany, Georgia, Alaska, Korea...... Never was I burglarized. In Alaska I never locked my car, my house or anything else. In fact, to keep my car warm and prevent engine damage in extreme temperatures I would often let my car run when in the store for an extended period if plug-in were not available. My fear of someone stealing my car was just about zero.

No way in hell is Frankfurt safer than most US cities. http://www.hr-online.de/website/rubriken/nachrichten/index.jsp?rubrik=14584&key=standard_document_5668166 Frankfurt in all reality has with 9 murders per 100,000 inhabitants the same rate as Los Angeles.

Another major issue is that the Germans are very reserved and "downplay" their freaks or issues while in the US everything is sensationalized and played up.

Shortly after Columbine you have a movie called “Bowling for Columbine”. The minor fact that in Germany you had TWO such instances and one with MORE dead than at Columbine is over looked by the German self proclaimed intellectual who tries to draw a connection between private gun ownership and violet crime. In Germany you have Homosexual S&M cannibals living in Rothenburg who flick off the judge during sentencing! You have a necrophilia murderer couple that first kills Oma and then has sex with her. Finally before leaving the apartment they poop all over in it in some ritual. At the Frankfurt train station there was a guy years ago who was selling AK47’s and taking orders for RPG’s in broad daylight! Even if you try to find something on it you can hardly do so. It’s no cover up, it’s just that the Germans don’t make a lot of fanfare about these events. This hardly made the news in the US. There is no TV drama that was immediately made that tells this story. Try finding a story about a guy in Frankfurt sniping people from the roof top in the downtown shopping area. It happened; did they make a movie about it?

A major aspect in this discussion is “perception”. Tell a German you live in Chicago and have a discussion on crime and you will guaranteed hear the mention of Al Capone.