What Makes People Turn to a Life of Crime?

I live in Louisiana where the government doesn't really care. Our system is f'ed up[DOUBLEPOST=1404961599][/DOUBLEPOST]i mean u won't see a 6 year old locked up, but they scare the crap out of u for committing crimes.

 

You'll see that all over the place in the US

 

I think Amethyst's post sums this up very well but it's still a fascinating topic I think. The mentally ill, the criminals, the addicts, they are all labelled and looked down upon in society but if you try to understand their point of view then it'll probably make more sense. I read a lot of autobiographies from addicts and mentally ill people and it's amazing to get a better understanding of what they go through (not a full one, I don't think I could ever truly understand what they go through without experiencing it myself). For example, I am currently reading "A million little pieces" by James Frey which is most likely his autobiography of his life getting over his drug and alcohol addictions and he's horrible to everyone just because he thinks he's worthless and doesn't want other people to get involved with him because he's a bad person. When you look at it from their point of view it makes things much clearer and stops hatred and labels, I just wish more people were more understanding. It's easy to point fingers of blame at them and look down your nose at them as horrible people but that's not the way it should be. Very few people actually do crimes for the sake of doing evil, most people have a good reason and so justify it in their head, sometimes it is greed though, sometimes it's wanting to mess the world up and cause chaos but that intention isn't overly common (mostly in clinically diagnosed psychopaths- someone without the ability to feel remorse and so tends to commit a lot of crimes without a second glance, this isn't all psychopaths though).

 

This is a lot worse than it sounds.

A criminal label affects the mindsets of everyone the accused meets. Their friends expect them to be that way; their relatives expect them to be that way; officers expect them to be that way and arrest them falsely. They are treated like they have already committed a crime, doesn't matter who.

That makes it significantly harder for them to get honest jobs because honest employers don't like to hire dishonest criminals. That is where it gets powerful. Being forced to fulfill the expectation is par for the course. Society makes it your only way to live.