[colonial]

After spending a summer working in Singapore, I fully support introducing corporal punishment to America (and accelerated capital punishment for drug trafficking offenses.) It turns out that - surprise! - actually punishing criminals where it hurts, even for "petty" offenses, works wonders for making your country a nice place to live.

Now, obviously, Singapore's methods aren't perfect - a common complaint I heard was that money can buy you kid gloves - and I imagine the Supreme Court smackdown over caning versus the 8th Amendment would be biblical. But any return to broken windows governance would be much appreciated.

[Gud]

A few months is not enough to get a good understanding of the local culture.

I have lived in a lot of places.

[colonial]

You don't need years to look around and see that (unlike much of the US) there are no homeless addicts, fare evaders, or vandals on the transit in Singapore. (Or, for that matter, murderous psychos with dozens of prior arrests.)

Logically, therefore, they have superior crime policy we should learn from - nothing to do with culture.

[Gud]

But you are wrong. It is entirely possible that the population of Singapore would act exactly the same with a lax policy.

I live in Switzerland. There is no public caning for chewing bubble gum here.

Yet it is an extremely nice place to live in.

I have also lived in Dubai where there is sharia law. Also a nice place for most people

[Viliam1234]

The more good solutions there are, the more shameful it is if we cannot adopt any of them.

[cedws]

The way I think of is is that crime is like a market. When the consequences are low, crime will rise. If you introduce such severe consequences for crimes that criminals never dare do it again, crime will inevitably fall. Singapore seems to get this but none of the rest of us do.