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> We don't prosecute petty crime in America.

Yes we do; at rates that horrify the rest of the world. It's very expensive. You can find a lot of detail here: [0].

> Most people in the U.S. criminal legal system are not accused of serious crimes; more often, they are charged with misdemeanors or non-criminal violations. Yet even low-level offenses, like technical violations of probation and parole, can lead to incarceration and other serious consequences. Rather than investing in community-driven safety initiatives, cities and counties are still pouring vast amounts of public resources into the processing and punishment of these minor offenses.

0 - https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024.html



> Most people in the U.S. criminal legal system are not accused of serious crimes; more often, they are charged with misdemeanors or non-criminal violations

I've probably committed misdemeanors; I don't think I've committed a felony. If misdemeanors are committed at a higher rate than felonies, and felonies are prosecuted at a higher frequency than misdemeanors, most prosecutions will be misdemeanors and most uncaught crime would have been charged as a misdemeanor.

> low-level offenses, like technical violations of probation and parole

It's difficult to call probation or parole violations "low-level offenses" without knowing the underlying offense.


> most prosecutions will be misdemeanors

So... We do prosecute petty crime? Ok then.

And since America has far more prisoners than basically any other country... We're prosecuting a lot of them.

> It's difficult to call probation or parole violations "low-level offenses" without knowing the underlying offense.

Feel free to read through the link instead of just the quoted section. There's no shortage of statistics and source data in the Methodology link.




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