[Buddha-l] Question for academic teachers of Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 12:51 -0400, Jackhat1 at aol.com wrote:

> ===
> Interesting that while people in the US say they  are highly religious, they 
> are among the world leaders in per capita crime,  murders, divorce, etc.

The figures I have seen suggest that is false. What is true is that
Americans *perceive* their society to be one of the most crime-ridden in
the world. The actual per capita statistics do not bear that out. The
following countries all have higher per capita rates of violent crimes
than the United States: Australia, Sweden, Swaziland, South Africa,
Belgium, Namibia, Ghana, New Zealand, Botswana and Jamaica.

The following countries all have more theft per capita than the United
States: Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands,
Norway, Belgium, France and Germany.

On the other hand, the United States has far more prisoners per capita
than any other society. Almost one quarter of all prisoners in the world
are in US prisons. There are twice as many prisoners in the United
States than in China and about nine times as many as in India; that is
numbers of prisoner, not prisoners per capita.

Why, one may ask, if crime is not a serious problem, are there so many
prisoners in the USA. Take a look at the department of justice web site
to see statistics on the crimes that got people into prison. A huge
number of people are in prison because of drug addition. Take a look
also at sentencing. Prison terms in the USA tend to be much longer than
in other countries. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, the
recidivism rate in the USA is astonishingly high. According to the
department of justice, 65% of those imprisoned for violent crimes are
re-arrested for further violent crimes within three years of being
released from prison. (In contrast, only 6% of sex offenders are repeat
offenders.)

In the United States, more and more prisoners are being held in
facilities owned and operated by private corporations. Imprisoning
people is a very lucrative business in the United States, and the people
making money in this way have a powerful lobby that opposes any move to
have more lenient sentencing or better opportunities for parole. The
budget for educating prisoners has been slashed during the past
twenty-five years, with the result that very few prisoners have an
opportunity to improve themselves in any way during their long
confinements.

If the death penalty is ever abolished in the United States, it will not
be for the right reason---namely, that capital punishment is barbaric,
uncivilized, immoral, inhumane, cruel, ineffective and just plain
stupid---but because private prison contractors will discover that they
make more money imprisoning people for life than cutting their prison
stays short through killing them.

>  It is 
> also interesting that in the US, the Red states  (conservative and more 
> church going) are the leaders in the US in the same  categories. I sense a 
> disconnect.

The connection, perhaps, is poverty and lack of education. Religion is
correlated with both. So is crime. It stands to reason that in parts of
the country where the educational systems are broken down and where both
urban and rural poverty is still a pressing problem, one would find
three symptomatic manifestations of a seriously diseased society: crime,
religion and people who vote Republican.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico