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America has pretty strict punishments. It locks up quite a lot of people and for long.

Another factor in murders is gun control - America has much bigger prevalence of guns. And most murders are in the moment escalation - impulsive acts, arguments that went out of hand and so on. When gun is present, people are more likely to pick them up and kill someone. If they are not present, the same thing does not end in death.

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And yet, not as strict. It's a revolving door with high recidivism.

Violent crime tends to scale more with poverty. The relationship with firearm laws is weak. See: the U.K.

This idea that we need to be stricter is what led to the crime bills now under bipartisan attack

USA is more strict. Also, Japan lock up much much less people then America.

Yet also, Americans are obsessed with idea of punishment. Their first idea of what to do with basically any issue is to punish more.

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