This has come up in various forms in other topics, and I thought it best to give it its own thread.

What is the best way to deal with crime? I tend to think that prevention is the best thing that we can do; rather than fight the symptoms (crime) we should fight the disease (what causes crime). If we eliminated poverty, increased education, and had a stronger economy that could support more jobs, there would be less crime. Of course, that wouldn't eliminate crime, merely suppress it. So, I think that most crimes are committed by people who would repeat the crime if given the chance, as opposed to some crimes in which the person is not at risk for a repeated crime.

For people who are at risk to repeat, rehabilitation is necessary, and if they cannot be rehabilitated, or they continually regress into criminal behavior, then they should be removed from society so that they can no longer directly hurt people until such time as they seem fit to be released back into society.

People who don't seem to be at risk to repeat pose a much bigger problem. If they committed a small crime that didn't directly harm someone physically, then it is likely they can live under probation for a period of time. If they did hurt someone physically, then it may be necessary to remove them from society, although not quite as severly as prison, perhaps more of a prisoner's colony.

These ideas are not perfect or complete, but I do think that they are better than a system which is based on punishment.

Legalise abortion. There's strong evidence to show that in America, the legalisation of abortion reversed rising crime rates.

Attack the cause. Eliminate poverty, and discrimination.

Rehabilitate offenders. Punishing them will lead to their re-offending. Prisons need radical reform following in-depth psychological research into recidivism. In general, avoid sentences that will create more criminals.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the (British) public are too narrow minded to realise that punishing offenders only increases the chances of them re-offending. I can't see them electing a government that promises to prioritise rehabilitation for offenders any time soon. That, and most of our politicians are too cynical to do anything to tackle crime that the electorate (or rather the mudslinging gutter press) won't like.

People are scared of crime, so they want it stopped through severe punishment. Rehabilitation is a far better way to solve the problems and prevent re-offending. I think that rehibilitation is almost always the right way to go, but there's no way that proven rapists should be released back into society without lots of rehabilitation, strict surveillance, and a monitoring parole officer. If they try to offend again, I don't think that they should ever go back out of prison. They've proven that rehabilitation isn't working, so why risk letting them out again? Attacking the cause and preventing crime is a great idea, but it seems that some severe offenders are just getting slapped on the wrist.

(Note: This post is not directed towards anyone, I'm just stating my opinion)

It's human nature to deal with the mischievious (Sp?). There's always going to be crime somewhere, and you could never really eliminate crime without eliminating almost all civil liberties as well. A lot of you realise that already.

There's going to be poverty as well. Invariably, there will be drugs in some form (And, if made illegal, drug smugglers). Where' there's drugs, there's addicts. Addicts, of course, usually end up homeless. Again, most of you probably already know that.

My solution? A bit more focused on making the actual crime more difficult to accomplish:

Crack down on gun smuggling. A vast majority of gun crimes are commited with imported guns, and making cheap, quick-buy weapons less available would cripple the numbers.

Legalize and tax drugs. Either way, there's going to be drugs, but all the illegal drugs that go into this country are un-taxed. As much as one percent of the money made by drug-smugglers each year could make a huge impact on policing.

Increase taxes for anyone who makes over 5 million a year. Most of the people who make that kind of money have jobs that aren't really deserving of such wealth anyways.

Better budget management. Unfortunately, a huge portion of tax money tends to find its way into politicians' pockets.

Mrr. Legalization of drugs for one. I, personally, believe that the government should sell the things, since I believe it would cut down on organized crime.

... As sad as it is, I think alot of the crimes can be dealt with by simply legalizing, and controlling them.. mainly drug related crimes.

As for things like stealing, I'd say make sure everyone has a decent standard of living. Yes, you might have to raise taxes, but if it means that there's no homelessness, I'm all for it. Take Denmark as an example.

I think that the root of the problem needs to be adressed, rather than trying to rehabilitate people... if they're starving once they get out of jail, then they're going to steal again, and I really doubt that the rehabilitation would be for anything.

With more serious crimes like murder and rape, I'm not sure what I'd do. With rapists, I favor chemical sterilization (depo-provera), but other than that, no idea.

Sorry for disjointedness, I'm stuck thinking in Chinese. >.<

Here's a question, would one basic system work for every culture, or are there differences to how crime should be dealt with in different cultures?

Well, I don't think homelessness is the porblem here. The people poor enough to need to steal probably have to have some sort of income to arm themselves. An unarmed robbery is like trying to steal candy from a nightclub bouncer.

Definitely. There should be huge differences in the way crime is dealt with. A more Social approach would not work in some cultures, just as a more Libertarian approach would fail miserably in the others.

The system would need to be tailored to the culture. Outlawing guns might work in some places, but it would be catastrophic in the United States...

I'm a big fan of legalization of things like drugs, prostitution and abortion. Legalizing these things will lower crime by default. How can it be a crime if it's not illegal?

Regarding rehabilitation of prisoners, prisoners should be alloted access to education or learn a trade. I also like some of the anger management, exercise programs and similar programs being tried in American prisons. I'm not a big fan of supermax-type prisons or Medieval-type torture (bear in mind, I'm not a big fan of comfy prisons either).

I'm not of the belief that social programs will eliminate crime. Poverty may be a factor in some of the stuff we see on Cops, but what of the people who embazzle millions from companies when they themselves have money? My friend's biological father had wealth, but he kept stealing for the Hell of it. What of that? Most people who steal don't steal because they're poor; they steal to make money. I heard a case around here where these people would get kids (theirs and others) to go raid Wal*Mart of various kinds of merchendise (mainly electronics) and sell them at the flea market. They did it because it was an easy way to make money. They must have been doing well enough to get ahold of a car and space at the dirt mall.

The only social program I'd be into would be public service announcements on how to protect your home or car against burglary and theft or something akin to the anti-piracy warnings they have before movies.

I don't mind the idea of halfway houses, so long as it's a temporary thing e.g., if someone were to be put on parole, he'd have to get a job and get a place before a certain date or he goes back to prison.

And drug legalization would, indeed, cut down on organized crime because it would turn the drug trade into a legitimate business (not a crime). Tobacco and alcohol are legal drugs and there seem to be no problems with those companies.

I will say this: I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do with rapist, murderers and child molesters. That's something that would take more looking into.