America's Exploding Crime Problem | Tomorrow's World

America's Exploding Crime Problem

07th January 2005
John H. Ogwyn (1949–2005)
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Do you realize that America has an exploding criminal class? The incarceration rate in the United States remained basically the same from about 1925 to 1973. There was an average of a little over 100 people behind bars for every 100,000 residents of this country. By the year 2000 that rate had quadrupled, with almost 500 people incarcerated for every 100,000 residents. America has overtaken Russia as the world's most aggressive jailor. Approximately two million Americans are currently behind bars, with about four and a half million on parole or on probation. Another three million Americans are ex-convicts.

Greetings, friends! Do you realize that America has an exploding criminal class? The incarceration rate in the United States remained basically the same from about 1925 to 1973. There was an average of a little over 100 people behind bars for every 100,000 residents of this country. By the year 2000 that rate had quadrupled, with almost 500 people incarcerated for every 100,000 residents. America has overtaken Russia as the world's most aggressive jailor. Approximately two million Americans are currently behind bars, with about four and a half million on parole or on probation. Another three million Americans are ex-convicts.

The Economist magazine recently noted that about 12 percent of the adult male population in the United States has been found guilty of a serious crime, and that the rate is even higher among minorities. Thirteen million Americans—7 percent of the adult population—have been found guilty of a serious crime—a felony—at some time in their life (The Economist, August 10, 2002, p. 25). The rate among adult men is 12 percent. One in 20 has been to jail. And the rate is even higher among minorities! Twenty percent—one out of every five black men—has been convicted of a crime at some point in his life. An incredible statistic!

Why? How can such a thing as this happen? Why do we find the rising criminal class in America? Solomon explained in the book of Proverbs: "Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). In the United States, in recent decades we have seen a breakdown of the family and an increasing rejection of godly values. Tolerance is about the only value that people emphasize. People have lost sight of the fact that all values are not created equal. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is destructive—it is a reproach. As the family has broken down, as standards of right and wrong have become blurred in the home, it is no wonder that they have been blurred in the society as a whole. We've got a problem. And that problem is only going to get worse.

This is John Ogwyn, with commentary for the Living Church of God.