More equal societies do better at almost everything

For example, they look at levels of crime and violence, and find that
they are far more prevalent in countries like the USA, UK and Portugal
and far less common in, say, Japan and Norway. This seems to be exactly
as you’d expect if you were looking for a link between violence levels
and inequality – but shows that crime levels are relatively unaffected
by harsher punishments – indeed, they show, the reverse might even be
true.

Countries with a more lenient judicial system based on the
principles of restorative justice tend, if anything, to have lower
crime rates than those that impose long prison sentences – or worse –
for even fairly minor crimes.

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