Are Criminals Made Up Of Desperation, Or Maliciousness?

[Seil]

Despite the fact that I don't believe 'maliciousness' to be a word, it's an honest question. I wondered just outside my place, unlocking the front door, why we have to lock the door in the first place. Then I remembered that people would break in otherwise. Then I thought that we shouldn't have to do that, we try as a society to... actually, what's going on socially?

Are criminals made out of desperation, stealing to provide themselves or others with basic needs? Or are they looking to harm another person, or feed an addiction? Either/or, don't we have programs and homes in place to prevent both from happening - to house the homeless and to punish the misguided? We do, don't we? If we have provisions in place to prevent it, why am I still locking the door before I go out?

[Fenris]

It's "malice"

and the answer you're looking for is "both"

[Magus]

Well, my father always said that a lock only keeps an honest person out. But that was before I installed the motion-sensing gatling turret. Now everybody stays the fuck out.

[Kerensky287]

Not all criminals are the same. People are people, and some people are different from others. Sometimes people feel they have no choice but to take what they need from somebody else. Sometimes people are greedy, selfish assholes. Take your pick.

The good news is that the greedy selfish assholes are incredibly rare. If they weren't, society couldn't function. If a person is determined to commit a crime, it's really, REALLY damn hard to stop them from doing it unless you know about it ahead of time, which you probably won't.

So locking the door is a deterrent for people who are wishy-washy about the whole "being douches" thing.

[Magus]

Plus I think you have to do that for insurance purposes, there has to be signs of breaking and entering to get money for stuff that is stolen. Personally I prefer having signs of "breaking and entering and bloodletting from a hundred-bullets-a-minute fire setting" but that is just me.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

It's both. Criminals, irregulars, mavericks (I'm such a megaman nerd XD) have there own indivisual reasons for causing trouble. Be it mental illness, survival instinct, or just for malice.

The true reason we lock our doors can be described as just because people are at times unpredictable when presented with the chance to simply take something that's not there's or harm someone with the low/high chance of being seen/caught in the act.

We do it cause we just feel better doing it, knowing we might not be a victim by taking safety measures such as locking the door and staying in after dark.

[Magus]

Personally I think everybody is just a criminal waiting to happen. Didn't you guys read Lord of the Flies in high school? The only kid who's not a murderer by the end is a thinly-veiled Jesus parallel.

[Kerensky287]

Originally Posted by Magus

The only kid who's not a murderer by the end is a thinly-veiled Jesus parallel.

And the fat kid.

But he dies, so.

[Magus]

You better re-read it, 'cause he helps kill the Jesus-parallel kid. Not that he doesn't represent civilization for much of the novel but he also represents how intellect is not a complete substitute for a moral/value compass in preventing violence or fear or negating primitive instincts.

[Krylo]

On Topic: As others have said, it depends on the criminal. Some are malicious, some are poor and just trying to get by, some grew up in the life and just don't know anything else, some are trapped in the life and can't get out, some have honest to god mental diseases that compel them to act out, some don't know any better, some are in a desperate situation. There's more motives than there are stars in the sky.

Though most of them are of the desperate/stuck in the life/whatever category, as that education and better social programs do considerably more to stop crime than more cops, but that's socialism and fuck that communist static.

On Locks: We lock the doors because criminals are, like everybody else, lazy. If they're in a neighborhood, and one house has the windows open? Well guess which house is getting robbed. Pro-tip: It's not the one with the security fence.

By the same measure, if they try your door and it opens, they're going to walk on in and take your shit. If they try it and it doesn't open, then they may try another house or just kick it in (which is noisy and increases the chances they'll be caught).

Even alarm companies don't really deter criminals because the alarm is going to get them caught. A determined thief can disable alarms and still get in, or can just smash and grab faster than police response times. However, a sign that says your house is protected by a security system is going to make your house safer because, well, if you're a criminal, who are you going to rob? The people whom you have to go through a whole to do to avoid their security system, or the people whose door you can just kick open and be done with it? (This is, incidentally, why just stealing a security company sticker and putting it in your window is nearly/just as effective as actually buying an alarm system).

On Lord of the Flies: It's a writer trying to make a point about how humanity sucks and we're all just monsters barely restrained by society. Considering he was from the UK, this is not a surprising conclusion for him to come to, however that doesn't make his opinions any more valid than Ayn Rand. Were he correct in his assumptions, then advanced civilization would have been unlikely to spring up in the first place.