On of the topic of the war on drugs, I'm curious if Glenn and John ended up discussing the question posed in the most recent Q&A pointing out that Rafael Mangual actually argues that there's a decent overlap between non-violent drug offenders and violent offenders. Many individuals move back and forth between the two categories of crime and I believe Mangual argues that targeting drug offenders is actually an effective way to crack down on more serious types of crime.
I think this is a question that could be answered empirically (although it would be a giant pain) - couldn't researchers look at a statistically significant sample of people in jail for pleading guilty to a drug charge, and compare original charges with the plea deals that were submitted to see the dropoff rate from violent charges to non-violent plea deals?
On of the topic of the war on drugs, I'm curious if Glenn and John ended up discussing the question posed in the most recent Q&A pointing out that Rafael Mangual actually argues that there's a decent overlap between non-violent drug offenders and violent offenders. Many individuals move back and forth between the two categories of crime and I believe Mangual argues that targeting drug offenders is actually an effective way to crack down on more serious types of crime.
Yeah, we take this up in our Q&A responses that will be posted shortly...
I think this is a question that could be answered empirically (although it would be a giant pain) - couldn't researchers look at a statistically significant sample of people in jail for pleading guilty to a drug charge, and compare original charges with the plea deals that were submitted to see the dropoff rate from violent charges to non-violent plea deals?