Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jeffreyrogers 2953 days ago
Also a very homogeneous population. Crime is higher among recent immigrants/refugees and their children[0]. It's hard to tease out how much is due to the prison/legal/welfare system and how much is due to the composition of society. Plus, it's a tough thing to debate openly because of accusations of racism, xenophobia, etc. In any case, it's certainly true that the US prison system is not very effective at reforming criminals and I'm sure the conditions are often appalling.

[0]: https://www.ssb.no/en/sosiale-forhold-og-kriminalitet/artikl... (mostly in Norwegian, but some parts in English)
1 comments
krageon 2953 days ago
Saying "foreigners are more often criminals", while not necessarily xenophobic in nature (as in, you don't have to have strictly xenophobic thoughts to come to such a conclusion), doesn't lead to a nice and balanced conversation. That is leaving aside the correlation/causation dilemma which you're just sidestepping here (it's correlative, not causative - unless you have some sort of proof for that, which I doubt).
link
jeffreyrogers 2953 days ago
No that's not what I'm saying. I understand the issue is complex. I am saying that crime looks different in Norway because their population is very different than the US, and that in the parts of the population that are more similar to the US you have higher crime rates.

I never claimed immigrants are somehow intrinsically more disposed to crime. In fact, the report doesn't make that claim either. It shows that crime rates vary greatly based on where immigrants/refugees come from.

link