<story><title>Why so little looting in Japan? It&apos;s not just about honesty.</title><url>http://www.slate.com/id/2288514</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>pwim</author><text>&lt;i&gt;They&apos;re good at their jobs, too: The clearance rate for murder in 2010 was an unbelievable 98.2 percent, according to West—so unbelievable that some attribute it to underreporting.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;High clearance rates don&apos;t mean police are good at their jobs. Police in Japan can hold a suspect for 23 days without charging him. During this period, they try to get a confession out, using techniques such as sleep deprivation. Furthermore, once you get to trial, it is usually with only a judge, not a jury. All levels are pushed to keep up this high conviction rate. So just because the rate is 98%, this doesn&apos;t mean justice was actually served at that rate.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why so little looting in Japan? It&apos;s not just about honesty.</title><url>http://www.slate.com/id/2288514</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Duff</author><text>These stories have the odor of propaganda to them.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;d argue that there&apos;s no looting because refugees are penned up in shelters inland, and the coastal towns are pretty much gone.&lt;p&gt;In Katrina and Haiti, people were stuck in the immediate area of destruction, and didn&apos;t have anywhere to go. Remember the guy blogging from the datacenter in New Orleans during the Hurricane? The whole city broke down, there was nowhere to go. In Haiti, the whole place was barely functioning before the earthquake.</text></comment>