Not sure what site you scraped those numbers from but the calcs are way off. Netherlands rate should be .00089% and U.S. should be .0056%, which is 6.3 times higher.

>The Netherlands had 148 murders in 2006 and it had a population of 16,491,461 which is 8.9%. The number of murders rose in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The U.S. had 17,034 murders (includes all levels) and it had a population of 299,398,484 which is around 8.2%. that number includes the huge rise in murders in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina which could and should have been prevented. Granted, there may be fewer gun deaths in Netherlands and the violent crimes overall may be fewer, but the total percentage of murders is certainly nothing to shout about in comparison. I'm ok with 1% in prison if they committed crimes. I'm not really sure how the different views on incarceration has helped the Netherlands? This is not meant to be sarcastic, and if my numbers are wrong, please correct me. I am interested in which method really will work in the long run. I'm not convinced rehabilitation really works for all crimes, but then it may simply be that there are not any good
>rehabilitation programs in place.
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>>>>>... or you can say that one reason some people turn to crime is because the punishment is too lenient. It's easier to be in jail for a few years than being on your own trying to make a lawful living. They're the little train that couldn't or wouldn't...:)
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>>>>You don't create a better society by hardening the punishment. You don't correct your son with harder and harder punishment when he did something wrong. It will not make him a better person. Simulary, you won't make a criminal a better person when you punish him hard and long. If a criminal has nothing to lose you have a person that will have no reason to follow the law.
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>>>Since you just seem to know what not to do and don't seem to have any answer to what to do, I'll tell you what I think must be done with harden criminals... lock 'm up forever doing hard time (harder the better) or just get rid of them. Either way I don't care, but I prefer the latter.
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>>oh, I do got the answer... but you'll discover later when 2% of all americans are improsoned that you're currently on the road to nowhere. What do you think it costs to imprison someone and who is paying for that ?? You're an example of those americans that believe in punishment and revenge, rather to work on matters that really prevent this from happening and work on matter to prevent this from happening again when they get out of jail.
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>>>>Punishments and revenge are not the way to create a better society. This is exactly the point here.
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>>>No punishment for doing crime, what a great thing.... if you're a criminal.
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>>You're a bad listener sam.... and a stereotype over here.
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>>Maybe you did not get the point but there is no country in the world that holds as much prisoners in the whole world (by far) and yet has a violent society (compared to other western countries).
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>>Now enlighten me, what is causing this ??