Check the statistics... a lot of what you're suggesting may appeal to common sense but isn't supported by the research (a common theme in this thread I think).
At some point in time a significant difference forms between what people wish were the case and what actually is...
I would heartily recommend this title to everyone.
With this I'll take my leave of this particular conversation. As I alluded to previously, crime and punishment is probably one of the hottest topics out there, hotter than evolution versus creationism, likely due to the problems with data collection/analysis. As is the usual for me, I've probably made enough enemies in the last eleven pages. 
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-Quinn
Man, n. ...His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth, and Canada. - A. Bierce, Devil's Dictionary, 1906
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