IMO its really a slew of many factors that stack onto eachother.
1. Education. The education system definitely needs reform. Its not doing the best job at teaching young people growing up how to be civilized. Especially in the poor communities. Its leaving people behind in school, because of certain teachers that don't do their job due to "tenure protections" that don't allow the schools to get rid of them. So therefore students start failing and get left behind. Once they become a failure they drop out and become unruly, because society dosn't give them any hope. Look at studies that have been done. There are many failing schools that have a very high drop out rate. This should not be. They need teachers that do their job and care about the students.
2. Numerous Laws and Efficiency of Enforcing them. There are so many laws in the U.S. one factor is the major crackdown on drugs we have in this country. If you get caught with any form of illegal drugs you get sent to prison. Once a person thinks they are a failure to society they no longer want to put forth the effort to change so they just live a life of crime. The U.S. is also has an efficiency at cracking down on crime so they catch more criminals.
3. Lack of Better Counseling measures. A small number of prisoners get put through rigorous counseling to correct them, but very few get what they need. There likely isn't enough attempt to correct the wrong doers. This does however cost the states money/tax dollars, but in the long run it may cost just about the same as it would to continually send that person to prison and provide food, shelter, bed, prison guards, nurses, ect.
4. Lack of Severe Punishments. Think about it. In some countries if you steal you get your hand chopped off. Im not suggesting we go around chopping theives hands off by any means. But what I am suggesting is that we have harsher punishments to deter crimes a bit more. If an individual is tried and proven of raping an individual against their will then that person should be sterilized so that they can no longer reproduce children. If they rape a again then make them into Eunicks. Im not talking full on castration of their sexual organs but this can be done surgically without removing them. This will cause them to no longer have any sexual desires. You may think this is inhumane, well rape is inhumane and there should be severe consequences. Also if they are prooven guilty of murder I believe the death penalty should be more stricktly enforced. Yes I support the death penalty in severe murder cases. Its only right that if you intentionally take the life of an inocent or even a young child for that matter you deserve death.
Increase the severety of punishment and you decrease crime.
And no, crime is not elevated because the U.S. has a lot of guns. If someone is going to commit a crime they are going to use any weapon available weather it be a knife, bat, pipe, or gun. Besides even if the country bans guns that means all the Law abiding citizens will then not have guns and you will have the law breakers getting guns illegally and then you have a situation where the inocent people are less protected. BANNING GUNS IS NOT THE ANSWER. If the country would focus on above points I assure you, incarceration rates would gradually decrease.
