In today's PacoVilla's Corrections blog, Bob Walsh offers proof of what I’ve been saying all these years.
Reminds me of when years ago a hot-check artist, whose lengthy arrest record consisted only of bad check charges, tried to pass a bum check at a Houston grocery store. The clerk at the checkout stand dialed up TeleCheck and learned that he was paying for his purchase with a hot check. When the clerk called for the store manager and tried to keep the perp at her station, this "non-violet offender" pulled out a gun and fatally shot her.
THE FALLACY OF THE NON-VIOLENT OFFENDER
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
September 10, 2009
There was an interesting editorial in the September issue [of POLICE magazine] which arrived yesterday, written by David Griffith. The title is the title of this post and he shares some interesting statistics and general info.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics did a nationwide survey in 2004 which showed the following.
95 % of all inmates had at least one prior arrest before they went to prison on their current offense.
33 % of "non-violent" offenders had an arrest history for violence.
8 % of "non-violent" offenders were in possession of a deadly weapon when they committed their non-violent offense.
70 % of "non-violent" offenders are arrested within 3 years of their release.
Patrick Burris, who was shot to death in Gastonia, N. C. recently by police had a 25 page rap sheet with NO convictions for violent offenses. He shot the cop who tried to arrest him at first. Forensic evidence tied him to 5 killings in the area in the weeks prior to his death.
Trying to define who is and who is not a "non-violent" offender is a crap shoot. Making judgements on the basis of what box we put people in is dangerous (unless the box is a cell, or buried under 6 feet of dirt).
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