How many people are arrested in the U.S. by the age of 23.

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Well no. This has been a growing problem since 1980. More criminal laws have been placed on the books since 1980 than the entire history of the U.S. before 1980. It's called over criminalization or the point at which continuing to pass criminal laws produces a diseconomy of value back to society.

We live in a nation where serial murderers die of natural causes instead of being executed (which I suppose is fine if you are against the death penalty) but we warehouse large numbers of Americans in prison industrial complexes for victimless crimes and what used to be legal, minor misdemeanors, or infractions two or three decades ago where their labor is farmed out to corporations to make the state money. Understand that over criminalization has resulted in massive waves of arrests across the country.

Here's an example of a semi-retired moral family all-American gardener who sold a harmless orchid and went to federal prison for it while paying most of his retirement money out in legal defense fees:

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2012/September/Orchid-Kingpin-Mistake-Lands-Elderly-Gardener-in-Prison/

For decades, Washington DC has been adding to the number of federal laws and regulations that carry criminal penalties. Now the number is so high, no one is actually sure how many there are.

Experts say practically anyone could be convicted of some sort of federal crime. And it’s all too easy for anyone to violate one of these laws and never know it. One congressman stated in the CBN article above that, “We have made it dangerous just to be alive in America.”

Adding complexity, state and localities have followed suit placing their own paper criminal burden on everyday Americans.

People are afraid to launch out in small businesses because they might end up in a state of federal prison if they don't get all the paperwork right. This risk aversion is hurting an economy already damaged by monopoly capitalism, a broken trade paradigm, etc...

Complicating the problem further has been the great erosion and rapid decline of morality, the family, the economy, the public education system, etc... in America at a time when we're accumulating more than one trillion in debt every year which has created a youth culture immersed in drugs, gangs, sexual immorality, rebellion, etc... with many of them from broken single-parent families. These are the subjects of the study and if this study is accurate: their rate of arrest is astronomical!

According to the FBI, in 2011 there were 3991.1 arrests for every 100,000 people living in America. That means over the course of a single year, one in 25 Americans was arrested.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/persons-arrested/persons-arrested

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/07/one-in-25-americans-was-a_n_3720526.html

Congress began an 'Over-criminalization Task Force Hearing' on the problem but nothing seemed to ever come from it so the wave of arrests of moral everyday Americans over issues they shouldn't be arrested for (not to be confused with arresting actual criminals that threaten others and the national interest that should be arrested) continues unhindered and unabated.

http://judiciary.house.gov/news/2013/Statement%2006142013.html



Ah another thing to blame Obama for.
 
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And the police are getting away with the deaths of people in their custody such as just occurred today in Orange County, CA with the Kelly Thompson case in which both officers were acquitted of ALL counts.

It's also difficult to accept that people are doing years in prison simply for filming the police in the course of their job as public officials on public property. The over criminalization of America combined with a lack of police accountability has created a risky situation for even moral well meaning Americans (not to be confused with immoral dangerous criminals).

I believe that in many areas of the U.S. today, the general public is at risk of inadvertently running into conflict with the justice system over innocent mistakes like failing to fill out the right form in a maze of complex bureaucracy or crossing some paper boundary they are unaware of and also at the street level running the risk of the police escalating a benign infraction to something serious unnecessarily.

Kelly Thomas verdict: anger grows, police chief urges calm - latimes.com
 
A retired Tampa police captain fatally shot a man sitting in front of him in a movie theater after a verbal argument over texting during the movie previews today.

I wonder if he'll be acquitted of all counts (assuming any charges are even filed as the district attorney has to prosecute the case on his old friend the police captain which is a conflict of interest like in all cities) due to the prosecutor deliberately presenting a poor case to get him off?

Man killed after dispute over texting in theater - FOX 13 News

[video=youtube_share;wZMdiqngrZY]http://youtu.be/wZMdiqngrZY[/video]
 
Unfortunately, authorization for the Over-criminalization Task Force expired Nov. 30. It would be a shame to let such a promising start go for naught. The House Judiciary Committee should reauthorize the task force so that it might continue with its important work.

They defunded the Congressional task force looking into over criminalization in America. Looks like waves of new laws making everything illegal except buggering and dope smoking are going to keep coming. Sad.

Over-criminalization undermines respect for legal system
 
My husband and I just watched a movie last night on the family in California that was accused of molesting children at their daycare in 1984. It took till 1990 to acquit all the people and 15 million dollars in state money was spent on this witch hunt which spread to other daycares and states.

All based on the evidence of a woman without professional qualifications, who led some of the children to say false things to please her, and the lack of time actually spent by the DA's office to review the tapes she recorded.

It was a terrible miscarriage of justice, and it ruined many of the family's lives. It just shocked me to my core, that this kind of thing could have happened during my lifetime. Talk about Salem witch hunts!

And talk about wasted money! Americans have become paranoid, and are demanding protection. Some of it is justified, if you go back only a few decades from the 1980's to the 60's and 70's with race riots and anti-Vietnam marches. Or back to the 50's with the McCarthy hearings, another expensive witch hunt which perhaps was the beginning of an overbearing political system and a justice system without justice.

Too much power is given to those in places of authority. The only reviews done are at election time, where politicians in the disguise of attorneys play the public for re-election.

The judiciary should never be elected, and they should be accountable.

I think it is just appalling that so much time and money is wasted prosecuting people who have not committed a crime, and calling it justice!

OK, feel free to jump on me about our lenient justice system, in which real criminals are set free and live in virtual country clubs. I'm with you on that!
 
The Heritage Foundation’s overcriminalization work is designed to change the minds of members of the public and government policymakers so that they will ultimately make changes in the legislative and law enforcement processes.

Publicity can also discourage the overzealous enforcement of bad laws while they remain on the books and the unreasonable application of good laws to the morally blameless.

Using Publicity to Fight Overcriminalization