> the five countries with the highest prison population are the US, China, Russia, Brazil and India.
Blimey, who'd have thought the countries with some of the highest population will have the most inmates. Then it continues with the per capita numbers which are a much better comparison but conveniently leaves out the per capita number for Sweden which according to the numbers in the articles is around 50 -- and India is 30! Not a nice/relevant comparison.
According to Wikipedia, apparently based on the same list just at a different rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat... India is fact one of the lowest per capita.
Murders are down 50% from 1990s, and the number of victims of street violence is down 30% the last 5 years. But these numbers are not unique for Sweden. The one type of violence that is up is for organized crime. http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/antalet-mord-halverat-sedan... (list of references in swedish)
But yes, we have a very ineffective police force, everyone knows this. We have more police personnel then ever (huge increase the last years). But solved crimes are less, or the same.
Note also that we can't use self defense like in the US. It is impossible to get any kind of license for pepper spray, taser (cops not allowed either), guns, anything you can defend yourself with. Makes it easy to be a criminal in Sweden.
Minor drug offenders are more often fined than jailed.
A friend got caught in his apartment with a grow op, drying cannabis, illegal mushrooms, other drugs and he ended up serving no time at all.
His time will be financial, he will have to pay off his debt to society literally instead of being incarcerated.
I was glad to see that the recent article kindly submitted here gives the inmate count for Sweden, and Sweden's population.
"According to official data, the Swedish prison population has dropped by nearly a sixth since it peaked at 5,722 in 2004. In 2012, there were 4,852 people in prison in Sweden, out of a population of 9.5 million."
So I looked up my home state of Minnesota's inmate count and population for a rough comparison.
"State corrections officials are quick to point out that Minnesota’s incarceration rate is the second lowest in the nation and to note how favorably Minnesota compares with our neighbor to the east. As of July 1, Minnesota had a prison population of 9,772 and a prison budget of $457 million a year. In contrast, Wisconsin has a prison population of about 23,000 and a prison budget of $1.2 billion."[1] Minnesota has a population of 5.379 million. In general, the state prison population in the United States is declining,[2] with Maine currently being the state with the lowest rate of incarceration, and Minnesota's recently fluctuating rate being the second-lowest. Some states have much higher rates of incarceration, so the overall United States rate is high.
As the article submitted here suggests, and as the articles I'm linking here suggest too, all over the world it can reduce incarceration rates to not punish minor drug offenses with incarceration. A determinate sentencing system that emphasizes severity of crimes like Minnesota's[3] keeps first-time, nonviolent offenders out of prison and reserves prison for repeat offenders with known history of violent offenses.
How does Minnesota's system work for me as a member of the public? I can walk all over my neighborhood feeling perfectly safe, and even my children can freely go out in public, walking for a radius of a mile or biking for a radius of four or five miles in any direction, without risk or fear.
[1] http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2013/08/how-minnesot...
[2] http://www.startribune.com/local/216949031.html
[3] http://mn.gov/sentencing-guidelines/images/2013%2520Guidelin...
Another bullshit article. Crime in Sweden is insane, I don't feel safe anymore.
We barely jail anyone for crimes, it's always fines and community bullshit service when it should be prison.
China exceeds the Unites states by more than 1 billion people in terms of population yet the US jail more people than China?!
This seems shocking to say the least.(at least to me)
Yet the US is supposed to be less of a 'policed state' than China.
Safety is not the same as feeling safe.
In Britain, about 10-15 years ago, they changed all the emergency services sirens to the same sound as the police have always used. You used to be able to tell the difference between an ambulance, a fire engine and a police car from the sound, now you can't. Also, these days a typical emergency medical response consists of 2 vehicles, a mobile ER doctor followed up by an ambulance.
So my point is that in a densely populated area, like London, it now sounds like the police are all over the place all the time. Actually it's usually a medical response to an elderly person having a fall or heart problems or such like but, because they all sound like police, people assume the worst.
If I were a politician and I wanted to introduce a rational and humane policy for treating the problem of criminality, like they have in Norway, the first thing I would do is change the sirens for all new fire and ambulance vehicle purchases so you can tell the difference from police. Then seed the media with the idea that there are less police sirens than there used to be. People would think crime had dropped precipitously and your policy would feel like it was a success as well as actually being a success.
It´s the supreme court that is not using the whole punishment scale and indirectly emptying the prisons. For Sweds: http://www.fokus.se/issues/2013-43/
This is a pure political gimmick to project their country as one of the safest/crime-free countries. As many have said here, Police is run by the Government and they have the right to manipulate the data.
As a general statistic, if you google it, you'll know the crime rate has been increasing in the last few years. They either fell into dumb ears or they make up by letting the criminals out.
What's the point?
Meanwhile, fascinating, non-political articles by and for hackers like this one are going more or less unnoticed:
No major Swedish news site is covering this. Interesting.
You won't be able to do this if the prison are privately run, they need their profits!
Beware of the political spin!
Note that while the number of inmates plummets, the number of crimes committed is higher than ever. This is a failure of the police and the justice system and not a success story.
Nearly 95 percent of violent crimes and robberies committed in Sweden go unsolved, and an individual police officer solves an average of three crimes per year. http://www.thelocal.se/20081103/15412