[politicalist]

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, so it unfortunately looks very American. (If "American" refers to the US alone.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rat...

[stcredzero]

Indeed. The US laws at various levels are riddled with outdated laws, some centuries old, which can often be conservative enough to do the Taliban proud. At their discretion, the police can decide to enforce one of these on you, which gives them arbitrary power to oppress anyone who pisses them off enough.

[arethuza]

Good grief - that's almost 1%. I thought the UK rate was rather high but that's about five times more!