Speaking of law abidance...
I recently asked my supervisor why it is he thinks we see the same villains over and over, and what he said, when I really thought about it, brought me to a dark and scary moment.
Now I had thought of it sociologically, from an economic and class view. I've thought about it psychologically, whether law breakers have for the most part been traumatized or learned how to victimize as a coping strategy. Because, when it comes down to it, we see about the same 5% of any given population repeatedly breaking the law, with seemingly little or no fear of reprisal.
And when I asked my supervisor his thoughts he said something along these lines:
"They have no fear of the law because they know that 99% of its effectiveness is based solely on the willingness of the populace to go along with it. Whether they thought it out, or if it's still just under the surface, something in them knows that there are far more of them willing to break it than there are of us willing to punish them. So they know it's a gamble, but something in them knows, when you get down to it and crunch the numbers, they will win."
(And then we played with bunnies and rainbows…)
