Quiz: What percent of violent crime is committed by repeat offenders?
- 5%
- 10%
- 25%
- 50-80%
- 100%
We call the 5/80 rule a “systemic rule of thumb”. 5% is a good benchmark for many kinds of human behavior and explains much of the distorted information we are fed by mainstream media. They look for drama and eyeballs, since that’s their profit center, not actual news. So we start to believe that the worst 5% of any group represents the whole group, and are forced to take sides in this false polarization.
In this quiz, the answer is 50-80% of all crime is committed by repeat offenders, demonstrating that there is a small minority of the population that commits the vast majority of crime, and that it is not systemically in society's interest in attempting rehabilitation with this group, as they are "playing the system".
If we want to stop violent crime, for example, systemic justice demands keeping recidivist felons – the 5% who commit 80% of all crime - in prison, and minor criminals out of jail.5% of humans across all ethnic groups have a survivor psychology and emotional makeup.
5% of all ethnic groups commit 80% of bad acts both within and outside the cohort
5% of police commit 80% of reported misconduct
5% of criminals produce 80% of violent crime
5% of journalists (the unbiased investigative ones) produce 80% of useful news content; the rest is opinion and gossip
In the example of recidivists, this would indicate a SYS-tainable policy of keeping recidivists in prison since they cannot be rehabilitated, and stop incarcerating those committing non-violent crimes.
Answer: #4 - 50-80% (Depending on how it's measured, the numbers can differ to a degree, but it's still the vast majority of violent crime)
