The Penal State: New Study Shows One-Third of Americans Have Been Arrested For A Crime By Age 23

I have previously written and blogged on the criminalization of the American society. Now a study in the journal Pediatrics this week finds that, by age 23, almost a third of Americans have been arrested for a crime.

The researchers found that 30.2 percent of the 23-year-olds looked at by the study had been arrested for an offense other than a minor traffic violation. The prior study in 1965 showed a 22 percent rate for prior arrests — a significant increase that, in my view, seems to confirm the impact on the criminalization of our society.

We currently have the world’s highest rate of incarceration, currently 738 per 100,000. We seem to be moving toward a correctional economy where a significant part of our population is in the business of charging, convicting, and imprisoning another significant part of our population. The question is how this little discussed trend will change our society and our citizens.

Source: NY Times

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