number seems low since so many grow up thinking they are just doing "file sharing".

You mean 'caught', subby.

Also arrested =/= criminal.

According to an article from last year, I think we all commit 3 felonies a day. So article is bogus.

Being arrested does not make you a criminal.

Being convicted in court does. You are still innocent until proven guilty.

\Before you say "yeah but the cops don't think that"...
\\I'm a cop.

Probably higher than that if they have friends who are thugs.

Which weights low-income areas much higher than upper class areas in such a survey. You can't really give the average without also providing a range within various zones of educational opportunity, income levels, and racial distribution.

Johnny Whitebread from the suburbs is much less likely to become a criminal than Jamal Washington from the inner city. It's misleading to simply give a 1 in 3 number and pretend like that tells the whole story.

Study needs a racial breakdown.

Oh, noes! My daughter took a picture of her covered boobies! My son peed behind an equipment shed! Yes, judge, I'm a terrible parent. Please send ME to jail instead.

FARK is a bunch of aging assholes.

AverageAmericanGuy:

Johnny Whitebread from the suburbs is much less likely to become a criminal than Jamal Washington from the inner city. It's misleading to simply give a 1 in 3 number and pretend like that tells the whole story.


That's a horrible scenario you depict. You should be ashamed of yourself for trying to scare people with visions of a future where a full 1/3 of the population is black.


/I keed

I wonder what the proportion of real crimes to bullshiat crimes is.

I saw this statistic on the news tonight and to say i was shocked would be an understatement. I'm a middle aged guy now, but during the 80s when I was at that age, we did all kinds of shiat. Smoked a lot of weed. Drank 'till we were fall-down drunk. Did a lot of coke. Dropped acid. Sprayed graffiti when we were loaded. Ripped off wallets and other stuff as the opportunity presented itself. I never was arrested. Neither were any of my friends. We're all quiet family-men now, and we can hardly believe the stuff we used to do. I tend to think that kids nowadays are too stupid to hide their crimes. Maybe that's a good thing...

DaShredda: FARK is a bunch of aging assholes.

Thank you captain obvious. You new around here?

Has anyone considered that there are a LOT more stupid things to be arrested for lately? Perhaps the kids aren't broken, it's the system.

This is such nonsense. Because marijuana is illegal, you can quote statistics like these to say youth are "in trouble."

Make circumcision illegal and we'd have a lot of older doctors "in trouble."

One is technically a crime is harmless, one is legal and causes lifelong harm.

The article mentions that is a much higher rate than in the 1960's. Keep in mind we also have a great deal more laws and much better crime-detection and enforcement methods in the 60's. Something that you might have done and gotten away with or it wasn't even illegal back then, might be illegal now. And you have a better chance of getting caught. That needs to be factored in as well before you make a real comparison about people doing more bad stuff now than 50 years ago.

AverageAmericanGuy: Johnny Whitebread from the suburbs is much less likely to become a criminal than Jamal Washington from the inner city. It's misleading to simply give a 1 in 3 number and pretend like that tells the whole story.

Uhhh.. No. A young male in his early 20s is practically considered a threat to society. We do absolutely everything we can to marginalize him, from hyper regulating the things he likes to do, to massively criminalizing his behavior that in a bygone era was "boys will be boys" is now seen as extreme anti-social behavior that needs behavioral correction by the courts, regardless of his race or background.

Trust me, MR tauresowner up there would love nothing more than to bust his balls for the slightest mistake and dog his whole family with thousands in legal bills.

That's terrible. I'm sure if we try real hard and keep creating new bullshiat laws, we can get that percentage well over 70.

If SOPA passes, the odds will rise to 3:3.

Post the lyrics to Never Gonna Give You Up on a forum? That's a felony.

And yet, the violent crime rate continues to fall.

Something's wrong here.

Supposedly cocaine use by their parents accounts for 70% of the violent criminals imprisoned. In short, using coke might change your genes you pass on. That's what one of the stat herders proposed.

Atomic Spunk: Sprayed graffiti when we were loaded. Ripped off wallets and other stuff as the opportunity presented itself. I never was arrested. Neither were any of my friends. We're all quiet family-men now, and we can hardly believe the stuff we used to do

That's awesome man. You know what our drug of choice is? Adderall. Farking study drugs. This shiat i have right now will make you think reading Calculus was like driving a Ferrari!

Hope you had fun!

Need_MindBleach: And yet, the violent crime rate continues to fall.

Something's wrong here.

Are you sure ? Sounds like we're locking up exactly the right people. If crime went up despite rising incarceration you could make the argument that the wrong (or just too many) people are in prison

culebra: That's terrible. I'm sure if we try real hard and keep creating new bullshiat laws, we can get that percentage well over 70.

Get 'em in the system early, I say. As long as it's not me, who cares?

if you go to jail for drinking and driving, does that make you a "criminal"?

ChuDogg: Atomic Spunk: Sprayed graffiti when we were loaded. Ripped off wallets and other stuff as the opportunity presented itself. I never was arrested. Neither were any of my friends. We're all quiet family-men now, and we can hardly believe the stuff we used to do

That's awesome man. You know what our drug of choice is? Adderall. Farking study drugs. This shiat i have right now will make you think reading Calculus was like driving a Ferrari!

Hope you had fun!

I actually envy the choice of drugs available to your generation. In the pursuit of new highs back in my day, I got info from High Times magazine. I tried Yohimbe (a useless plant that did next to nothing) and Nutmeg (makes you dizzy and nauseous). We certainly didn't have a good choice of psychoactive pharmaceuticals like you kids do.

Of course, it's a big and ever-growing business. Gotta fill all those prison cells and make the government monies.

On a related topic, it would be pretty cool if they allowed private citizens to take on prisoners for the same amount of cash. I've got a shed i don't use much, and i've always wanted to get to know Charles Manson. Maybe we can work something out? I think you'll find my rates very competitive to your regular private prison system. And i promise he won't escape. It's a pretty solid shed we're talking about here. I'll also try to hose him down daily, but i reserve the right to cease the hosings if he begins to be aroused by them. I also can't be held responsible for any neighborhood children he may brainwash.

/call me

Raging Thespian: Yeah, "non-traffic offense" covers a metric fark-ton of possibilities. What percentage of those are violations anyone would actually give a shiat about?

You removed the tags from your mattress, didn't you.

I dunno, most people in prison are non-violent offenders. And by letter of the law standards I'm the criminalist-criminal that ever criminaled. Not too worried about the next gen. I just need to teach my kids not to post their stupid shenanegins all over the internet.

some_beer_drinker: if you go to jail for drinking and driving, does that make you a "criminal"?

I so rarely laugh out loud when I'm by myself.

Oh, one memory from 1983 comes to mind. Three friends and I were drinking Lowenbraus (remember those?) at a park late one evening. We were about 3/4 of the way done with our case. A cop pulled up and checked our car. He saw the beers and asked our age (we were 17 and the legal age at the time was 18). We didn't lie - we told him we were 17. He shook his head in disapproval, made us empty the rest of our beers on the ground and throw away the bottles. Then he gave us a stern lecture and told us to go home. If this happened today, I doubt the cop would have let us go.

Hell I was technically arrested because of by parents. I can blame everything on them now!

/CSB time. I got stuck in the middle of a Minnesota suburb that was around 5 miles from my house, with no car (Got dropped off) No Cell phone since I left it at home for once, and the pay phone at the creepy gas station has outside and I was freezing. Note this an entire thing took about two hours, up to get a rid to a gas station from two random people, and someone letting me used there cell phone.) I called 911, told them there was a minor in need of transportation home. (I might have been crying but I was scared at that point.) The cop came, put me in the back and drove me home. While I was in the back I explained the situation, mainly it was a comedy of error, and he let my go without even wantning to question my parents. Found out why the pay phone wans't working was that Dad decided to rearrange the furniture again and unplugged the phones.
//The above story is generally why I accept that when most people are put in a position where they have to, they will do the right thing.
///Also don't fark and take Ambien. The stuff makes you think you can type but you really cant.

what would the numbers like if drugs were legal?

Atomic Spunk: Three friends and I were drinking Lowenbraus (remember those?) at a park late one evening.

I don't understand this aside. Is Lowenbraus not available in your area anymore? Or were they a fad beer at some point, like Red Dog?

/ boy did Red Dog suck

What's the over/under for when they just pass the law to make it illegal to not be in prison?

Raging Thespian: What percentage of those are violations anyone would actually give a shiat about?

It's okay, you're not the only one that was caught teabagging at the 19th hole.

It's all tha gansta' rap, I tell ya'. And all the Christian music too!

jingks: Atomic Spunk: Three friends and I were drinking Lowenbraus (remember those?) at a park late one evening.

I don't understand this aside. Is Lowenbraus not available in your area anymore? Or were they a fad beer at some point, like Red Dog?

/ boy did Red Dog suck

Yeah, I haven't seen a Lowenbrau in decades here. Fond memories of those foil tops. I had no idea they were still in business.

Atomic Spunk: Oh, one memory from 1983 comes to mind. Three friends and I were drinking Lowenbraus (remember those?) at a park late one evening. We were about 3/4 of the way done with our case. A cop pulled up and checked our car. He saw the beers and asked our age (we were 17 and the legal age at the time was 18). We didn't lie - we told him we were 17. He shook his head in disapproval, made us empty the rest of our beers on the ground and throw away the bottles. Then he gave us a stern lecture and told us to go home. If this happened today, I doubt the cop would have let us go.

Compare:

-College party.
- Off campus
-most of us over 21
- cops bust in and start barking at everyone
- people go outside
- cops dont find anything
- cops form police line, start forcing people AWAY from the apts
- dont let any of us into our own apartment
- girl decides to be cute... stands perfectly still with her back to the police line
- officer grabs nightstick and with two hands whacks her right in the back of her head
- girl piled on, handcuffed and arrested
- charged with breach of peace and resisting arrest
- thought it would be cleared up in court, ended up pleading out to avoid jail time

I have a much different experience than you

Need_MindBleach: I wonder what the proportion of real crimes to bullshiat crimes is.

1 : far too farking many

/criminalize everything so you can arrest on a whim for anything

Atomic Spunk: Yeah, I haven't seen a Lowenbrau in decades here. Fond memories of those foil tops. I had no idea they were still in business.

Weird. I always saw them around in Vancouver liquor stores. And some bars in Tokyo serve them exclusively. I don't think much of them either way.

stonelotus: THERE'S NO WAY TO RULE INNOCENT MEN. THE ONLY POWER ANY GOVERNMENT HAS IS THE POWER TO CRACK DOWN ON CRIMINALS. WELL, WHEN THERE AREN'T ENOUGH CRIMINALS ONE MAKES THEM. ONE DECLARES SO MANY THINGS TO BE A CRIME THAT IT BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE FOR MEN TO LIVE WITHOUT BREAKING LAWS. WHO WANTS A NATION OF LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS? WHAT'S THERE IN THAT FOR ANYONE? BUT JUST PASS THE KIND OF LAWS THAT CAN NEITHER BE OBSERVED NOR ENFORCED OR OBJECTIVELY INTERPRETED - AND YOU CREATE A NATION OF LAW-BREAKERS - AND THEN YOU CASH IN ON GUILT.

FTFY. Now you look like a proper fan.

So, if we remove all the pot cases that no one cares about, what's the real number?