[phaus]

Most of the time, when people are talking about getting tough on crime, they are talking about stuff like murder, rape, child abuse, selling crack to kids, or DUIs. They generally adopt this attitude after seeing people commit horrible crimes and get out of prison almost immediately to do the same or worse.

We do lock more people up than any other country, and it is shameful, but that doesn't mean that everyone who wants to get tough on crime is talking about locking children up for making bad jokes, or imprisoning their neighbor who occasionally smokes pot. That, my friend, is being out of touch with reality.

[anon1385]

I can't speak for the people in your community but here in the UK 'tough on crime' most certainly does mean getting tough on what is called 'antisocial behaviour'. In our recent Police and Crime Commissioner elections it was these lesser 'antisocial' offences that were the central campaign point for just about all candidates (along with 'giving victims more say').

The result of this attitude is that we lock up people for 4 years for joking about starting a riot on Facebook[1].

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/16/facebook-riot-calls...