It’s all the judge’s fault, or the police, or our prison system, or our ________________; just fill in the blank with your favorite scapegoat. This is one of the fundamental misunderstandings about crime – that its source is somewhere just over there, and its solution is just one simple step away.
We believe that if we just tweaked this or that part of the system, or sent more people to prison for longer stretches, or maybe just started killing criminals altogether – well then, all of our problems would be solved.
Except they wouldn’t. Not even close.
Crime & Justice 