Why, then, do Americans continue to vote for those who vow to lock yet more people away? One reason is that fear of crime does not diminish even when the incidence of crime falls. If one selects different base years, the violent crime rate has increased (14.3% from 1973 to 1981) and increased again (6.7% from 1982 to 1993). But this would be misleading for present policy analysis, in that the overall violent crime rate actually dropped 54% (1973-2004) (Rushefsky 2008, 253, citing US Department of Justice Statistics [BJS] 2005). The rate may have dropped from the deterrent effect of an increase in the rate of arrests compared to total victimizations and reported crimes (Rushefsky 2008, 252). Regardless of the explanation, the overall rate has dropped significantly. Law abiding people naturally want murderers, rapists, and muggers caged. But this does not explain why the prison population has risen almost ten times faster than the rate of violent crime.
It is not crime that has hanged, but punishment A study of why the prison population has grown attributed about a third of the growth to demographics, the increase in violent crime, more arrests, and longer sentences (cited in The Economist 2009a, 71). The other two-thirds came from jailing people for offenses that would not have required prison sentences in the past. In particular, the war on drugs has crammed America's prisons with nonviolent petty criminals. The