If someone commits a crime because they forgot something that’s qualitatively different then crimes that do require more intent to be committed.
Just having a law on the books is not enough to deter crime. You actually need for the people who might commit the crime to expect that there’s a reasonable chance to be caught.
True enough, and there’s a slippery slope to a police state in that observation. That’s part of the problem, actually: some neighborhoods are much closer to being in that police state than others. Presumably, just as much extralegal activity happens in other places, but we (society) systematically fill jails from these heavily policed areas. Looking back to the original question, I’d say that this suggests crime does not fully “explain the exceptional US incarceration rate”. You need to write laws in a particular way and establish at least a partial police state to get that much of your population in jail.
If someone commits a crime because they forgot something that’s qualitatively different then crimes that do require more intent to be committed.
Just having a law on the books is not enough to deter crime. You actually need for the people who might commit the crime to expect that there’s a reasonable chance to be caught.
True enough, and there’s a slippery slope to a police state in that observation. That’s part of the problem, actually: some neighborhoods are much closer to being in that police state than others. Presumably, just as much extralegal activity happens in other places, but we (society) systematically fill jails from these heavily policed areas. Looking back to the original question, I’d say that this suggests crime does not fully “explain the exceptional US incarceration rate”. You need to write laws in a particular way and establish at least a partial police state to get that much of your population in jail.