Vassenor wrote:Purgatio wrote:
1. Fine, I won't assume, here are your exact words: "I hope you realize most criminals don't choose to be criminals, usually what happens is that societal situations force them to do so (Like poverty, lack of education, etc...) or they end up commiting crimes by accident." Seems like I characterised your position pretty accurately
2. Great, you're not a liberal, but you are liberal compared to me, hence why I'd say your position is 'liberal' relative to me. Liberal and conservative are relative terms anyway, I'd have no problems with you calling me conservative since I'm obviously conservative relative to you.
3. What does that have to do with anything? So what, if I haven't been poor I can't have an opinion about this anymore? And what does poverty have to do with criminality? So you're poor you now have no choice but to rob banks and snort coke and mug people on the street? I don't see how one is connected to the other at all
4. No, it literally doesn't. Being robbed of agency means being robbed of your freedom and capacity to make choices (ie a mental illness has robbed you of mental capacity, or you're being violently coerced to do something). Being poor just means you have less money. It doesn't mean now there's suddenly a gun to your head forcing you to rob people or take drugs where prior to then there wasn't.
5. Yes, by choice. You realise that criminals are a tiny minority of the population, right? In 2013, only 2.8% of the US adult population was either in jail, on probation or on parole https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5177. If the overwhelming majority of people manage to not commit crimes or go to jail, clearly its a choice, there's no way to get around it.
6. Yeah, this is a stereotype I hear a lot: rich people commit lots of crimes and never get caught. Or, maybe, there are fewer rich people in jail because fewer rich people commit crimes? I'd also point out that, if you are now arguing that the rich and poor commit crime at the same rates, it kinda undermines your argument that poverty contributes to criminality.
7. I don't come from the US, I come from Singapore, a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world and an incarceration rate lower than the US, Russia, Brazil, Iran and Turkey. Funnily enough, it turns out when you take a no tolerance position when it comes to crime, it really does wonders for creating a crime-free environment for everyone.
So what's the dark figure like there?
What dark figure? Is that supposed to mean something to me?