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Comment by betterunix2

OK, let's assume that all countries have identical legal codes and definitions of "crime." The claim that the homicide rate is correlated with the incarceration rate is still dubious.

As I said in my previous comment, the homicide rate is not the same as the rate at which murderers are convicted and imprisoned. Besides having a higher homicide rate compared with other countries, the US also has a low rate of arrests/convictions for homicide compared to other countries:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/01/12/as-murders-spi...

Really though, the fact that a majority of US inmates are non-violent offenders should be enough to tell you that the homicide rate says little about the incarceration rate. The homicide rate also says very little about the overall crime rate, unless you believe in antiquated concepts about "criminality" that treat "crime" as a monolithic category. In reality, a murderer is no more likely to commit fraud or possess drugs than anyone else, and someone kiting checks is no more likely to be a murderer.

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