You should be asking those other nations how they manage corruption and petty crime.
Also can we trust how they collect statistics on how many people are murdered in their country? Maybe the US has more technology and sophisticated ways of finding the bad guy and collecting this data which brings our numbers up. Maybe we're more efficient in this way.
Just because one doesn't see crime, doesn't mean it's not happening and that applies to all nations.
It is interesting to compare Scandinavia to the US. We share a common popular culture, a common religious background, and a significant number of US citizens can trace their origins back to scandinavians.
According to this source, the US have 756 people in jail per 100.000. Norway and Denmark have 94/87. That is about 8.4x:
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fengsel#BefolkningsstatistikkIn Norway, about 0.71 people were killed (in 2006) per 100.000, while in the US the corresponding number was 5,62. That is 7.9x. The link says that comparing figures between countries is error-prone, but that Norway seems to have one of the lowest rates in the world.
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/DrapI believe that having big cities is a factor. The US have some really big cities, and those tends to have more crime than rural parts. If Scandinavia had many million+ cities, we would probably have more crime as well. But this is hardly sufficient or even the largest factor.
Having access to guns is an obvious possibility, but while the US is #1 on the list of civilian firearms (88.8 per 100), Norway is #11 (31.6 per 100). That is 0.36x
http://www.gunpolicy.orgI do not think that Scandinavia lags behind the US when it comes to the general "level of law", the organization of our state, public corruption, or anything of that nature that scales with size. Being 5 million people naturally means that the absolute levels of budgets and number of employees in e.g. the police will be lower than in a 250 million people nation.
While the image of "the self-made man" seems to be important to many US citizens, social mobility is actually lower in the US than in many other western countries. This means that if your parents are poor, chances are that you yourself will be poor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobilityI spoke to a retired social worker the last time I was in the states. He was quite convincing that the changes in the 50s/60s, where the middle class moved out of the cities into suburbs (where a car was needed), leaving the central parts to "the remainders" was problematic. When people of different social status*) are mixed, they seem to be better equippet to pressure politicians into prioritizing a neighbourhood. Those who have issues may get help, or they may limit their excesses. Kids will have a wide range of role models. In short, dividing the population into those who could afford a car (and a new home) and those who could not carried a number of problems to society.
I think that a significant obstacle for a sensible discussion on this topic is that it is nearly as politically loaded as climate change. Are people in jail because (only) they are bad people? Do we have jails only to make life miserable to those bad people (and scare them or their friends into becoming good people)? Do we have laws because we want them to be followed, or because we think they make society better? Are the laws shaped to make life easier for some, and harder for others? Are the police and law system as eager to investigate and jail white people wearing suits as other classes of society? Do we punish police officers for misusing the trust that society shows them? If what you are doing today does not seem to work, will doubling up on it make things any better?
-h
*)Not only salary levels, but the degree of alcohol problems, psychological problems, language abilities etc
