Where did the fallacious idea Americans are violent come from?

[Northern Light]

One of the rare occasions when you say something I agree with 100%. Changing the way we deal with the mentally ill, and restoring proper funding to mental institutions for those deemed dangerous, is what we should be addressing; it IS the single universal in virtually all mass murders: the murderer was mentally abnormal. In many cases people knew he was, but nothing was done. That needs to change.

The Federal and State governments have already created their version of a solution to the problem of mental illness. It's called prison. Same with addicts. Our country's solution continues to be to create more criminal laws and continue to feed the prison system.

Until the focus returns to actual rehabilitation then there's no point in having that discussion. Funding was cut from the mental health sector on purpose. It's not a right vs. left issue, successive administrations have shown that they believe it's not worth it to try and help the mentally ill to become more productive members of society. Rehabilitation means you no longer have a cash cow for the private prison system to milk.

And so we will continue to have school shootings, increased violent crime rates, and a sweeping gang mentality. *shrug*

 

[skreetsmart]

yea, good point.. actually.. most of american violent crime (and i hate saying this about my own people) is commited by blacks in select urban areas. chicago alone has a violent crime rate comparative or higher than some third world countries like congo and brazil. I believe something like 9 urban centers are responsible for over 50-60% of all violent crime in the US.. and out of all of those about 85% are commited by black.. there is a great presentation on this done by stefan molineux of Freedomain radio

 

[Voltaire X]

America has a problem with street gangs. This is what people don't understand. Our high violence level is not from mass shootings and school shootings and whatnot. It's from gang warfare. Until the problems that fuel gang activity (war on drugs, poverty, poor public education) are fixed, the violence won't go away.

 

[Manc Skipper]

The perception that the mentally ill are violent is a false one, not helped by their negative portrayal in the media. They are more likely to be victim than aggressor. Those with a serious ongoing condition such as Schizophrenia or other psychotic condition are 2 1/2 times as likely to be attacked raped or mugged than the general population. They also serve a s a handy scapegoat for the NRA.

Violence and Mental Illness: The Facts

 

[SidewaysBear]

I wouldn't trust the daily mail, being a tabloid. Better off relying on something reputable like an OECD report or UNODC report: List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Wiseone]

:shrug: Murders per 100,000 people statistics - countries compared - Nationmaster

Compiled from government statistics, including the CIA, still has America far above the rest of the first world.

I guess you don't know what a "source" actually is. If you read the source, you will see it's the same bogus source in the Wikipedia link. Kinda sad euros to have to lie about crime rates.

So what, precisely, is your problem with the statistics?

Read the talk page like I already told you.

I'm not reading through an entire talk page, try the copy and paste function on your keyboard.

You want me to read it to you too, like a toddler? Tough luck.

So I read it. There's nothing there that sets any country in western Europe above the US.

Whenever someone refuses to show their source, its always because they don't actually have one and the only way to get around that without admitting it is to argue that either its "so simple they don't need a source" or "you can look it up yourself."

If the Europeans are lying about their murder numbers, do you have a source with the "real numbers?"