“Compared to the Japanese, we [Americans] are incompetent. In Japan, every criminal gets caught. For major crimes, convictions run ninety-nine percent. So any criminal in Japan knows from the outset he is going to get caught. But here, the conviction rate is more like seventeen percent. Not even one in five. So a criminal in the States knows he probably isn’t going to get caught – and if he’s caught, he won’t be convicted, thanks to all his legal safeguards.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun