Crime rates have a large influence on the choices people make about where to live. The amazing declines in crime over the last fifteen years have been especially strong in big cities, a factor that helped fuel an urban renaissance. Ironically, however, some of the lowest murder rates are found in places where one might suspect just the opposite to be true: U.S. prisons. The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released data on the causes of death among inmates in state prisons. In 2005, 56 prisoners were murdered. There are roughly 2 million inmates held in state prisons, meaning that the homicide rate per 100,000 prisoners last year was only 2.8. That number is less than half the rate of New York City (6.6 per 100,000) and an order of magnitude lower than Baltimore (42 per 100,000). Indeed, of the 66 largest cities in the United States, only El Paso, Tex. and Honolulu, Hawaii have lower homicide rates than the state prisons.
Interestingly, suicide rates in prison are about average for the U.S. There were 215 suicides in state prisons in 2005, for a rate of roughly 10 per 100,000. The overall suicide rate for all Americans is 10.6 per 100,000.
These low homicide and suicide rates are both testimony to the fact that prisons are incredibly highly controlled environments. Whenever I have visited prisons, I have been amazed at how safe I felt. In contrast, when doing ride-alongs in police cars, I’ve always had the feeling that something crazy could happen at any moment.
So if you feel there is too much crime in your own neighborhood, there is a simple solution to your problem: just commit a crime yourself. Your new home in prison will likely be a much safer place to live.
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Robert, it’s difficult to get good numbers on sexual assaults in prisons. Much of the sexual activity is consensual (meaning that any reasonable person would call it consensual if the same words and acts passed between two university students).
However, since sex is banned in prisons, then an inmate who is caught having sex will often report it as rape. Some inmates see rape allegations as a way of insulating themselves from misconduct charges. Some see it as a way to get special attention or to manipulate the system (to get a different cellmate, for example). Others see it as a way of reinforcing their conformation to a heteronormative roles (as in, “I’m not gay; he raped me!”)
Certainly some sex in prisons is non-consensual, but I don’t think that is actually a common experience outside of the movies.
(Some of it is purely fictitious, too. Inmates are not known to be the single most truthful population, and trumped-up sexual assualt charges are occasionally used as a lever for extortion.)
Robert, it’s difficult to get good numbers on sexual assaults in prisons. Much of the sexual activity is consensual (meaning that any reasonable person would call it consensual if the same words and acts passed between two university students).
However, since sex is banned in prisons, then an inmate who is caught having sex will often report it as rape. Some inmates see rape allegations as a way of insulating themselves from misconduct charges. Some see it as a way to get special attention or to manipulate the system (to get a different cellmate, for example). Others see it as a way of reinforcing their conformation to a heteronormative roles (as in, “I’m not gay; he raped me!”)
Certainly some sex in prisons is non-consensual, but I don’t think that is actually a common experience outside of the movies.
(Some of it is purely fictitious, too. Inmates are not known to be the single most truthful population, and trumped-up sexual assualt charges are occasionally used as a lever for extortion.)
Ummm … is murder the only crime one should worry about in prison? How do the physical and sexual assault rates compare? And how about attempted murder — not just successful murder? Let’s not set aside good social science just for a clever headline.
Ummm … is murder the only crime one should worry about in prison? How do the physical and sexual assault rates compare? And how about attempted murder — not just successful murder? Let’s not set aside good social science just for a clever headline.
Why is this surprising? Prisons are extremely thoroughly controlled environments, with guards, bars, solitary confinement for high risk inmates, and most weapons are completely contraband and carefully kept out of the hands of inmates. It’s easy to keep murder rates low when you’re dealing with a population that has very few individual freedoms and nowhere to hide.
Why is this surprising? Prisons are extremely thoroughly controlled environments, with guards, bars, solitary confinement for high risk inmates, and most weapons are completely contraband and carefully kept out of the hands of inmates. It’s easy to keep murder rates low when you’re dealing with a population that has very few individual freedoms and nowhere to hide.
…or you could move to Singapore.
…or you could move to Singapore.