In the US, most victims of rape are men.

[snousle]

For 2008, for example, the government had previously tallied 935 confirmed instances of sexual abuse. After asking around, and performing some calculations, the Justice Department came up with a new number: 216,000. That’s 216,000 victims, not instances. These victims are often assaulted multiple times over the course of the year. The Justice Department now seems to be saying that prison rape accounted for the majority of all rapes committed in the US in 2008, likely making the United States the first country in the history of the world to count more rapes for men than for women.

From a very interesting article here, which attacks both left- and right-wing perspectives on crime. Conservatives tend to dismiss the dramatic drop in recorded crime rates because it doesn't support their fear-based agenda of social control. Liberals tend to dismiss the dramatic drop in recorded crime rates because it gives support to the "lock-em-up" approach while ignoring the fate of millions of people subject to crime while incarcerated. Glazek's article is great because it manages to alienate nearly everyone while confronting one of the great moral failings of American society, which probably means he's on the right track. His comments on gun control are particularly pointed:

Gun control is another area where progressive energies have been wasteful and counterproductive... Even on its own terms, gun control is not a straightforwardly progressive matter. The war on guns bears important similarities to the war on drugs—both are used as pretexts for searching, arresting, and imprisoning ethnic minorities. Gun control, like drug control, doesn’t do much to restrict supply—instead, it creates a black market for the product regulated through violence. In many states, obtaining a gun license is expensive and complex: we’ve essentially made it legal to own a gun if you’re wealthy and white, and illegal to own a gun if you’re poor and black.

IMHO, gun control is one issue I also think the American left needs to give up on. It's interesting to see how panicked the NRA crowd has become about Obama's conspicuous lack of gun control initiatives; without threats to rally their supporters, they have to more or less make them up, as they're doing with elaborate, nearly incomprehensible conspiracy theories surrounding the "Fast and Furious" scandal. It is helpful - if even more confusing - to remember that intrusive gun control laws were largely the invention of conservatives in the 60s and 70s, such as Reagan, who wanted to make sure that only white people had guns.

There is also another article in the New Yorker on the subject of mass incarceration which is very worth reading, albeit depressing. What a mess. I have no idea how it's all going to end.

Comments

[danthered.livejournal.com]

gun control is one issue I also think the American left needs to give up on

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Best use of silence in a comic strip, ever.

[putzmeisterbear.livejournal.com]

We spend more money on prisons that we do on schools. Man on man rape is inevitable. What gets me is the same people that have an attitude of "homosexuality must end", when confronted with prison rape have an attitude of "walk it off and get over it".

[bigjohnsf.livejournal.com]

I think that it is very difficult to find meaningful study without being muddled by both sides of data to justified a premier goal on either side.

I think that drugs, rape, violent tools and prison effective are not currently working.

Should I assume from reports that I should assume that:

1. MORE guns in use would make us safer?

2. More prison makes us safer?

3. Drugs in prison makes us safer?

I guess my question is... what really works?

And, why do we always hear that the US never learns from the histories of other First Countries, as if we are so unique in every situation.

I suspect that if there were serious neutral data would suggest:

- Fewer public guns
- Drug focused more on health issue than prison
- Prison in general based on effect against violence (and scam)

Maybe prisoners would have less rape if they were allowed to have sex with other prisoners.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately you cannot pass a law that says "there shall be fewer guns". You can pass a law that says "we are going to go and try to take people's guns from them" but then you have all kinds of problems. Like people not giving up their guns and becoming criminals as a result.

In the current conditions I believe more widespread gun ownership would reduce violence a little bit. In other countries the opposite is probably true. The one thing you find in looking at studies of gun violence is that there is nothing obvious that can dramatically affect things one way or the other - it's all a muddle.

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Call me racist, but the almost daily murders in Oakland just irks me. It usually involves Black kids, but Latinos are moving in.

And it's all because the kids ain't got parents that know how to raise a kid, and/or they think it's cute that their kid is mouthing the words of Tech9NE or some other gansta rap artist.

We don't need gun control, we need responsible parents. And if they aren't, either an abortion or confiscate the kid.

Sounds harsh, but in reality, all you're doing is saving lives, down the road.

[barbarian-rat.livejournal.com]

While I haven't finished reading the articles you linked to, my feeling is that the "Northern" model of prison rehabilitation doesn't work because the expectation is to find One program that will work for everyone. The truth is some people cannot be rehabilitated, and different programs work for different folks. The "Southern" model of punishment is an extension of Southern fundamentalist religion, that is a concentration on the Old Testament punishment and laws, you've got one life and if you sin yer goin' to hell for eternity.

Putting people in prison, so they can sit around, doing nothing and getting no help inside or when they get out is clearly not productive.

Rape in prison is more than about sex, it's about power and domination. But letting prisoners have condoms and consensual sex would help, but not eliminate rape.

Tennessee, I believe, recently passed a law to allow loaded guns in bars. Probably not a really good idea.
If we allow more guns out there then bullets need to have tracer markings on them.

[barbarian-rat.livejournal.com]

I finally got to read Christopher Glazek’s article “Raise the Crime Rate”.

Halfway through it I thought that the author had really hit the nail. He clearly described the problem. But by the time I had finished the article my jaw was on the floor. His thinking really fell apart.

In discussing London, he states that they have a higher crime rate, and that we will need to learn to live with that. He doesn’t discuss that the increase in crime will not fall uniformly. Communities of color might look at that as another attach on them.

Loosening gun control laws might be a good thing, but he doesn’t mention, in his comparison to London, that they have much stricter gun control laws, and how that might effect our choices here.

He doesn’t discuss the Dutch attempt at legalizing prostitution, their drug laws, and how that might, or might not, be relevant to us.

He suggests that we look to the Napoleonic Code to find justice. Then he compares NYC to London, when Paris would be a better choice. Comparing NYC to one European city is insufficient, information about numerous other cities needs to be looked, and discusses how they might be relevant to the US.

In the end I felt that he didn’t make a good case for any specific action, or actions, to rectify the problems we face concerning prisons and crime.