# US ranked #5 - not trying hard enough **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 30, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526 "2011-03-30T16:46:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/61 "2011-03-31T03:59:43Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Wish they would have ranked countries on a per-capita basis. Then it ends up looking like this: > > 1. China: 1 execution per 267,000 (assumes 5000 executions) > 2. Iran: 1 execution per 305,000 > 3. Libya: 1 per 356,000 > 4. Yemen: 1/445,000 > 5. North Korea: 1/480,000 > 6. Saudi Arabia: 1/1,000,000 > 7. Somalia: 1/1,170,000 > 8. Syria: 1/1,300,000 > 9. United States: 1/6,711,000 > 10. Bangladesh: 1/18,300,000 > > On a per-capita basis, China is killing 'em 25 times as fast as we are. Even when it comes to capital punishment, you just can’t compete with the Chinese. > > Feel better? Hmmm…Singapore seems to be conspicuously absent from that list. I would imagine they are doing at least one execution per 1,000,000 if not a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/62 "2011-03-31T05:05:44Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Hmmm…Singapore seems to be conspicuously absent from that list. I would imagine they are doing at least one execution per 1,000,000 if not a lot more. Probably, but Singapore doesn’t release official statistics of executions. The newspaper will sometimes report on executions, but it’s generally not public information. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/63 "2011-03-31T08:27:36Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Probably, but Singapore doesn’t release official statistics of executions. The newspaper will sometimes report on executions, but it’s generally not public information. Yeah…although I was being pretty oblique about it, that was actually the point I was trying to make about the local standards when it comes to releasing information. And just for the record, this sort of transperancy applies to more than just executions. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/64 "2011-03-31T08:32:58Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > The only person you are trying to deter is the person you are executing, and I’ll go out on a limb and say that Capital Punishment is 100% effective in that respect. Actually, it’s more than 100% effective, because they sometimes kill people who didn’t even commit the crime. That’s some pre-emptive deterrence right there. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/65 "2011-03-31T09:23:58Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Wish they would have ranked countries on a per-capita basis. Then it ends up looking like this: > > 1. China: 1 execution per 267,000 (assumes 5000 executions) > 2. Iran: 1 execution per 305,000 > 3. Libya: 1 per 356,000 > 4. Yemen: 1/445,000 > 5. North Korea: 1/480,000 > 6. Saudi Arabia: 1/1,000,000 > 7. Somalia: 1/1,170,000 > 8. Syria: 1/1,300,000 > 9. United States: 1/6,711,000 > 10. Bangladesh: 1/18,300,000 > > On a per-capita basis, China is killing 'em 25 times as fast as we are. Even when it comes to capital punishment, you just can’t compete with the Chinese. > > Feel better? Wow, you are quibbling where you come on the list when you should be bothered that you are on there in the first place. Don’t you want to join the rest of the civilised world on this one? It is very difficult for the US to maintain any moral high-ground while you continue to execute your own citizens. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/66 "2011-03-31T10:11:19Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I don’t know, if you kill 223 people a day, I think that would really deter crime, though I know I don’t think it would in any way justify it. I mean lets be serious, we would be down to only the insane and the truly desperate committing crimes with that sort of execution rate and today’s crime solving methods. We would also be killing what? 60 innocents a day with our current record of convicting the wrong person for the crime, but within a few years, I think you would have to see a real drop in crime if a society was willing to be that horrible. In 2005 there were about 115 fatalities a day due to car accidents. That’s less than 223 but I don’t see this deterring driving. 223 people executed in the United States would only be a headline in the news for a month and then we’d go back to talking about Charlie Sheen. So no real deterrent power there. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/67 "2011-03-31T12:28:08Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > In 2005 there were about 115 fatalities a day due to car accidents. That’s less than 223 but I don’t see this deterring driving. Your odds of dying in a car accident are pretty slim. In the US in 2009, there were 1.26 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles. In an average year, you drive ~12,000 miles, so your odds of dying are about one in 6614. Using **Euphonious Polemic’s** calculations, if you commit a violent crime under my proposed expansion of the death penalty, your odds of being sentenced to death would be somewhere between 1 in 10 and 1 in 6. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/68 "2011-03-31T12:35:51Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Using **Euphonious Polemic’s** calculations, if you commit a violent crime under my proposed expansion of the death penalty, your odds of being sentenced to death would be somewhere between 1 in 10 and 1 in 6. That presumes that people are being executed for being guilty. And it presumes that suddenly racial, class and gender bias vanish from the police & courts. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/69 "2011-03-31T13:49:01Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I was guessing it was people who believe in Creationism (but I think we are second in that). Not to hijack the thread, but what country could possibly have more creationists than we do? The United States is pretty much ground zero for creationism and millenialism. And are you talking about percentage or absolute numbers? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/70 "2011-03-31T15:06:21Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Not to hijack the thread, but what country could possibly have more creationists than we do? The United States is pretty much ground zero for creationism and millenialism. And are you talking about percentage or absolute numbers? [Turkey, of all places](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9786-why-doesnt-america-believe-in-evolution.html). Apparently, secular democracies with a dominant majority religion generate [a lot of crazy people](http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2565/25653701.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526/71 "2011-04-01T19:10:37Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Even with the knowledge that capital punishment is WRONG, always and everywhere? No it isn’t. > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Yes it is, so my question stands. No it isn’t. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Is that a question? Because the answer is no. Wrong. The answer is yes. > [@Rigamarole](#): > > Drats, I was close. My guess woulda been torture. My first guess was eating babies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-ranked-5-not-trying-hard-enough/576526.md?page=3)