(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Norway shooter who killed many people was given 21 years in prison. What are your opinions on the matter?

Also, consider the fact that Norwegian prisons are far more luxurious than American prisons.

Most of that is true, however this man is obviously not mentally stable if he killed multiple people. There's no way to know whether prison will even rehabilitate him after 21 years.

I've seen several posts about you talking about Norway. I'm actually very interested to hear more about it. You said in one thread that it is statistically one of the best countries in the world. I know I'm just being lazy here, but I think it would be awesome to read a thread from you comparing/contrasting Norway to other countries in several different ways. I would like to learn more about how they do things very different than other countries and how successful it is.

You don't have to make the thread, again, I know I can just google it, but you explain things very well and you seem to really know a lot about Norway (and every other country in the world for that matter lol). So it's up to you, just a fans request

Well I'm no expert on the country, I've never actually lived in Norway so I can't say that it's brilliant from personal experience but what I can say is that from what I know statistically Norway is a country I would be proud to live in and here are a few reasons why.

First Reason - The HDI

The Human Development Index - This is a composite score showing the development of human civilisation and society in the world. It is the most important statistic for determining the success and stability of a country. It is a combined statistic of Life Expectancy at birth, Adult Literacy levels, University Enrollment, School/College pass-rates, and National GDP. In short it's designed to measure the longevity, education, and prosperity of a nation.

The HDI has been calculated since 1990, and since 1999 Norway has been #1 every single year except in 2007 and 2008, when it was #2. That's 11 years it's been rated as the most developed civilisation on the planet. The HDI rated USA for 2011 as #4 but only if using an aggregate average, what this means is that the super rich celebrities skew the results, the HDI committee have a method of avoiding this called the iHDI which takes into account inequality of income. This doesn't change Norways position at all, which is still #1... USA however is #23 only a little behind United Kingdom who is #19. In fact the highest USA has ever been on this list is #12, and UK has never been higher than #17.

Second Reason - Crime

Norway is not perfect but it has incredible crime statistic. I'll compare it with the United States to give people some persepective. Prisoners per capita is the first statistic of importance. Norway has a prison rate of 64 people per 100,000 that's less than 0.1% of people in prison, rated 119th out of 164 countries, one of the lowest prison rates in the world. USA has a prison rate of 715 people per 100,000 that's almost 1% of the entire population and its the highest prison population IN THE WORLD! You are more likely to go to prison in USA than in any other country in the world. It's rated 1st out of 164 countries. The crime rate in USA is 35 times greater than in Norway. That means for every 1 crime in Norway (per 100,000 people) there are 35 crimes in USA.

Normally I'd carry on at this point and explain more, but I don't have time as I have places I need to be, so I'll have to explain more later if needed, but needless to say Norway also has great stats for Healthcare, Liberty and Evironmental Issues as well as having the highest internet usage rate per person, completely supports gay rights, is extremely secular (and largely atheistic), AND the country is gorgeous and has beautiful weather (I don't like being hot). I claim Norway is my perfect country not because it's the best at everything, it's not. Netherlands has greater liberty and supports legalising drugs in ways Norway doesn't. Japan is more secular and more atheistic than Norway, which does still have a fair amount of church goers. While it's a great country Norway isn't especially big with only 4 million people in it, and as such has little power on the world stage, something I'm proud to say UK does have as one of the founding UN nations and a UN Nuclear Peacekeeper. Norway is anything but perfect, but it's IS the best country in the world, provably so and if I have the chance, I fully intend to retire there when I'm older.

I agree with TC in the sense that the prison sentence, as like most prison sentences, is not for punishment but rather an attempt at rehabilitation. Locking someone away for life doesn't make sense to me. If they change and are no longer homicidal then what? And the death sentence is too permanent to implement for example: Sometimes, and innocent person is put into prison because of sufficient evidence found that says they committed the crime. When the prosecution later finds out that he was innocent, they pull him out of jail and perhaps put the real criminal in if at all possible. You can't do this with the death sentence for obvious reasons.

TC: Those statistics comparing their crime rates to the USA are STAGGERING. We really do have way too much crime here in the US. But is it possible that Norway's low crime rates are related to their small population? I think it would make sense if there are less people then there would be less crime.

I do really agree with their prison system though. Maximum 21 years in prison, solely set on rehabilitating the person rather than punishing them for life.

If he is willing to take a life, his life should be taken away from him.

No, you misunderstand. The crime-rate statistics take population into consideration. What that means is that there's actually thousands more crime in USA but comparing relative populations the crime rate is still higher.

There are 307,006,550 people in USA and 4,885,240 people in Norway. What this means is that for ever 1 crime commited in Norway there are 2199 crimes commited in United States, but taking relative population into account it works out that if the populations where the same it would be at a ratio of 1:35.

I could be wrong, but in Norway isn't there not a war on drugs? Because many, MANY people in US Prisons are there over drug use, transportation, exchanging, etc...

Ohhh ok I understand now. And yeah just as "Just4Hax" said, their laws on drugs+alcohol are a lot better than ours. People over here could get 20 years in prison for minor drug offenses. While over in Norway, you can get maximum 21 years for taking another person's life. In comparison, the US's drug+alcohol laws are absurd. I had another thread a while back about how the US should lower their drinking age to 18 or so. I also believe we should legalize marijuana, and aim for rehabilitation for addicts, rather than locking them up for extremely long periods of time.