Populations across the world are not comparable in a variety of ways, including in a "best-case" base criminality rate. So you can't compare per-capital rates of imprisonment and go, "Gee, that's high in Country X compared to Country Y and Country Z".

There's an old saw: A Scandinavian economist once said to Milton Friedman, ‘In Scandinavia, we have no poverty’. Milton Friedman replied, ‘That’s interesting, because in America, among Scandinavians, we have no poverty, either’ [0]

0: https://iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/Sw...

N.B.: there was selection for the worse-off in those coming to the U.S.

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pessimizer 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> So you can't compare per-capital rates of imprisonment and go, "Gee, that's high in Country X compared to Country Y and Country Z".

That's an exceedingly weak defense for a country that imprisons 4x more people per-capita than China.

	▲	NoImmatureAdHom 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It isn't. China's murder rate is about 0.5 murders per 100,000 people per year, while South Africa's is 44 per 100,000 people per year (assuming both countries report honest statistics). That's an 88x difference between two large countries. [0] 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...