> a majority of US inmates are non-violent offenders
Only true for federal inmates, which is <10% of all prisoners in the US. When you take into account the rest of the prison population, the majority are in fact imprisoned for violent crimes[0] (homicide, assault, rape, robbery, etc.).
> 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
I'm flabbergasted that anyone could believe this on its face. Do you not think that the behavioral factors that drive someone to murder correlates with a whole host of other antisocial behaviors?
In actual reality, studies in criminology repeatedly show both that people who commit one kind of crime tend to commit other kinds of crime; and that there's a strong power law distribution in crime, where an extreme minority commit the great majority of crime. Most people do not commit any. It's farcical to suggest that the average Joe off the street is as likely to be a fraudster as a convicted murderer, or really as any other kind of criminal.
[0]: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-numbers-dont-lie-its-...
Only true for federal inmates, which is <10% of all prisoners in the US. When you take into account the rest of the prison population, the majority are in fact imprisoned for violent crimes[0] (homicide, assault, rape, robbery, etc.).
> 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
I'm flabbergasted that anyone could believe this on its face. Do you not think that the behavioral factors that drive someone to murder correlates with a whole host of other antisocial behaviors?
In actual reality, studies in criminology repeatedly show both that people who commit one kind of crime tend to commit other kinds of crime; and that there's a strong power law distribution in crime, where an extreme minority commit the great majority of crime. Most people do not commit any. It's farcical to suggest that the average Joe off the street is as likely to be a fraudster as a convicted murderer, or really as any other kind of criminal.
[0]: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-numbers-dont-lie-its-...