While Western governments and media have long criticized Singapore's draconian laws and its low tolerance for all crime, it has to be said that the prosperous city-state has been highly effective at warding off the ill effects of lax criminal jurisprudence and enforcement that typify, with the exception of an absurdly oil-rich Norway or two, almost all developed Western societies.
It pays to give our approach to crime and sentencing another look before we blissfully laud ourselves for 'upholding' some imaginary ethos governing human dignity at the cost of rampant societal maladies that continue to plague us, while in reality, doing a sloppy job at both.
Case in point:
Number of deaths in Iraq over the period of 2003-11 : 4,422
Number of murders in Chicago,Ill. over the same period : 4,265
Source(s):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNIT9Dn_Rjk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaDR2kLI0m0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_99LydvXqDk
https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=138...