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Week Number One Comments Crime and Justice in the US, Review of the Criminal Justice System Return to Week One Assignments 
Reported crime in the US has been declining for the past several years. However, the US probably has the highest rate of reported violent crime in the world, and the highest rate of incarceration of any country. The questions are raised are: Are we safer today than we were in the past? Does the high incarceration rate have a connection to the reduced crime rate? Does the fear of crime drive the US incarceration rate? Are the current sentencing strategies costing the taxpayer too much? These and other areas are explored in this first section of the course. The answers are not easy to find and depend much on what information and statistics one accepts as valid. In this section of the course we will examine the crime rates, the impact of the increasing incarceration rate and other information related to the justice system.
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