Police Killings per Capita v Homicide Rate per Capita for Select OECD Countries [OC]Submitted by dr5c t3_y350kf in dataisbeautiful
pk10534 t1_is72kx8 wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in Police Killings per Capita v Homicide Rate per Capita for Select OECD Countries [OC] by dr5c
Idk, why is GDP per capita the only metric that should be used to group countries? The US has far more in common with Brazil and Mexico in terms of history, religion, geography, diversity, former colonial status, etc than it does with Belgium or Norway. Because Brazil is poorer, it doesn’t make sense to compare two large, diverse countries with similar histories of slavery and colonization with hundreds of millions of people, but it does make sense to compare the US to a country like Luxembourg, a small affluent, homogenous European nation with fewer people than Indianapolis? Or Norway, which has half the population of Los Angeles county and practically no resemblance to the US in anything but income?
I grow so weary of these weird excuses where apparently “developing” nations (which, I will point out, is a totally arbitrary term) are too dysfunctional or anarchic to be compared to “civilized” European/North American countries. I just don’t buy that.
thebestoflimes t1_is765z3 wrote
Poor communities within countries will generally have much higher rates of violent crime and the same holds true for countries as well. The USA is consistently a heavy outlier when compared to other very wealthy countries in terms of healthcare, imprisonment, violent crime, etc.
Siglet84 t1_is776sp wrote
The USA is like a giant Germany with a bunch of brazils tucked inside of it. If you’re reasonably wealthy, you aren’t really affected by crime of criminals cops. If you’re poor, crime and criminal cops are a daily part of life.
-Ch4s3- t1_is86xlq wrote
That’s the case in Brazil as well. Wealthy Brazilians are constantly in NYC and Miami, speak perfect English, send their children to boarding school, and vacation in Europe.
Duncan-McCawkiner t1_is8ie6c wrote
I wouldn’t even say reasonably wealthy. I’d say just not completely impoverished. You can be relatively poor and live in very safe rural/suburban communities in the US. It’s people living in areas of high poverty where you’re dealing with violent crime and police corruption daily. Although I’d argue there’s a fair share of police corruption in the US even within the safe wealthy communities just low risk of being shot by them for no reason and even then that still only really applies if you’re white.
RajaSonu t1_is95gqy wrote
Police being placed in school and changing school policies means that wealthier Americans are beginning to have more interactions with cops then before. Now students are getting arrested for behavior that previously got them suspended.
pk10534 t1_is7auwq wrote
I don’t dispute any of that, my point was solely that it doesn’t make any more sense to compare the US to Lichtenstein or Denmark than it does to compare the US to Brazil. Wealth shouldn’t be the only factor we look at.
For instance: Mexico is a high income economy who also broke away from a European power and is a democratic, free market nation. Mexico’s GNI is actually closer to Spain’s than Spain’s is to the US. If it’s fair game to compare spain to the US (which has a GNI $40,000 dollars higher than spain), why is it not for Mexico?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_(nominal)_per_capita
RambunctiousRabbi t1_isaq9x2 wrote
Youre wayyyy too smart yo be arguing this on Reddit.
But you’re 100% correct in my eyes
Chris-1235 t1_is7xoch wrote
Agreed, look at HDI, it's a much better metric that shows the difference between developed and developimg nations https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/country-insights#/ranks
100dylan99 t1_is7dv1r wrote
> The USA is consistently a heavy outlier when compared to other very wealthy countries in terms of healthcare, imprisonment, violent crime, etc.
That's because other "developed countries" are Europe, Arabia, and a few places in Asia.
The Americas are more violent than just about everywhere in Eurasia, hell, even Africa when you adjust for GDP (outside of South Africa, which is in many ways more like LatAm than the rest of Africa anyway. The US has a very minor version of the problem Brazil has. It is not doing very poorly at the job that France is doing.
Spambot0 t1_is78f5u wrote
Every time a selected group of countries is used, it's because they give the result the person wants, and the ensemble of all countries doesn't.
It's P-hacking 101.
TurtleFisher54 t1_is76h2n wrote
For 1 money is the main divider in the world so it makes sense to use it as a baseline for comparison. You make good points tho it is not the end all be all.
pk10534 t1_is79rax wrote
I totally agree income is part of the puzzle, I just can’t stand when it seems like people dismiss certain nations from comparison to the US because it would hurt their narrative (for instance, when the Washington post made a graph for violent crime in OECD countries to talk about violence in the US, but left out Mexico).
-Ch4s3- t1_is87btg wrote
For sure. Talk to Amy middle class person from Monterey and they are more culturally like people in the US than almost any European.
forteborte t1_is7mjrm wrote
also communities in general, anything west of the mississippi is stuco and doesn’t have mom and pop businesses or community to fall on.
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