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Why are so many young Americans (more than 1 in 3) being arrested?

Around the world, governments that arrest large portions of their citizens point their finger at the United State's rate of incarceration. Now, it looks like we're becoming a leader in arresting young people as well.
Andrew Bossi
/
Flickr
Around the world, governments that arrest large portions of their citizens point their finger at the United State's rate of incarceration. Now, it looks like we're becoming a leader in arresting young people as well.

The United States has the highest incarceration ratein the world. That detail gives our country a bad reputation around the globe.

Now, it seems our reputation for incarceration won't be helped by this new fact: "By age 23, up to 41 percent of American adolescents and young adults have been arrested at least once for something other than a minor traffic violation," according to a report by ABC News.

Read more on Humanosphere.

The host of the Humanosphere community is Tom Paulson, who spent 22 years reporting on science and medicine at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Tom was one of the first daily news reporters to cover the topic of “global health” (a much-debated label which he discusses the merits of on the Humanosphere website).