rant on this country's failure.

Collie D wrote: »

Hmm, I don't believe that graph. Wasn't there a period when capital punishment was outlawed across the US so therefore the graph should show zero for executions.

It looks like it does between about 1961 and 1980. (Edit - actually looks more like '67 - '77. I don't know the actual statistic as you may have guessed.)

Collie D wrote: »

Also, I am pretty sure nearly every study in the US has shown that the death penalty has had no effect on the murder rate nationwide

They were just getting withdrawal symptoms.

Whilst I would never denounce personal responsibility I am advocating that these circumstances breed the kind of mentality which lends itself to violent outbursts and anti social behavior.
In the same vein, to say that wealth affects everyone the same way poverty does is nonsensical. People are all different of course, which in fact reinforces my proposed line of reasoning. Not all poor people are heroin addicts, not all rich people are greedy, but the relative circumstances(in terms of environment and mentality) certainly do have a noticeable effect upon behavior.

If I could propose a solution to the problem it would be increased public spending on education and health care combined with social initiatives to increase a sense of community in poorer areas. The apathy shown by our government to the disenfranchised is exemplified by the judicial systems sentencing. I agree that sentences handed out for violent crime are completely ineffective(both in duration and in result) as they lack the redemptive element necessary to discourage repeat offenses. Rather than straight up sending people to jail, perpetrators need to learn WHY their crimes are socially unacceptable and be exposed to the results of their actions in a way which educates them rather than just stigmatizes them driving them further down a path of criminal activity.

codewarrior wrote: »

I think you over-analyze the effects of capitalism and the fourth estate on the situation mr. H3mmo. The issue here is probably largely due to the population explosion on the Emerald Isle and the influx of different cultures into your population. Population density and increased friction caused by cultural differences ring far more true to me then the "rampant apathetic consumerism" argument. Also 80 murders a year for a population c. 5 Million would be considered acceptable by anyone from the colonies. My city (Chicago) has 2.8 million people and 435 murders (2006), New York had fewer than 500 murders (a record) with a population of 8 million (2006) and LA had 392 murders in 2006 with a population of 3.6 million. I'm not saying that these numbers are good, but these are the 3 largest urban centers in one of the most decidedly first world countries in the world.

Thank you for putting our murder rate into perspective. I still think Ireland is a safe country

There is a general abdication of responsibility in this society. People think education can solve it but don't realise the far greater power of the 'home' culture. Teachers haven't a hope. The parent(s) send them off to a baby-sitting service and couldn't care less what happens there. The attitude is 'What my child does/doesn't do is nothing got to do with me... don't bother me about it.' We'll see a lot more of screwdriver in the head stuff over the next 10/20 years before people get angry enough about it I'm afraid.

Corporal punishment, eh? Violence upon children to prevent future crimes? I know if any teacher had laid a hand on me as a child they'd have taken a table to the mouth

Femmy wrote: »

i come out better financially by working part time, than i would if i worked full time. - go figure.

Yes.....?

Over crowding would be a major factor. When over crowding occurs with any animal violence is never far behind but with us I'm curtain it's all down to the loss of community.

The worst thing is we should have known these things at the beginning of the economic boom as it's happened over and over again in many other countries but greed and selfishness got in the way. I blame the government completely for it, they where in charge and they should have done something to ensure we didn't stupidly go down the same dead ends as other county's. Now we've squandered the boom and are stuck in this position.

I've made this point a few times on boards before, but does anyone else think that the very concept of a suburb is contributing to the problem by reducing personal space and pride/identity with the locale ?

On the drugs issue, there are two sides to it, Yes drug dealers exacerbate the problem and contribute hugely to violent crime, Yes some drug addicts resort to violent crime & theft to fund their habits..... BUT.... Drug dealing is the most lucrative career for someone with no qualifications, the risks to life and limb are not as high as we would like to think For more on alternative approaches to drug gangs see the Boston Gun project,we may find success somewhere between the BGP and zero tolerance. Drug addicts are only stealing and mugging to pay the dealers, If the govt. were to round up all the Heroin addicts in the country and offer them free gear and a place to live in return for commitment to a program to put their lives back together, it might have a higher success rate than demonizing them and making them out to be a scumbag scourge of our society, its an illness, its time to treat it as such.

Sexual assault and Rape represent the most worrying statistic in this discussion, as it destroys people lives and personalities. They deserve the full wrath of the law. Let the victims choose the punishment for a change.