The fact that none of you got jailed is actually more relevant than you seem to think.
If, say, a decent portion of your classmates, including people you were friends with, were regularly accused of crimes and occasionally imprisoned for them, what effect do you think it might have on your perception of how "wrong" the acts they committed were?
When cognitive dissonance arises from trying to reconcile actions that are on the opposite end of the spectrum from how you associate a person, the outcome is generally not that one of those two absolutes remains and the other shifts, but that both perceptions shift.
I'm not claiming that any of this justifies poor decisions, only that it's quite feasible to have a heavily warped view ingrained in you, and that, if a split-second comes where a mildly poor decision could get exponentially worse, it's not generally the case that you spend minutes consciously considering all the options and rehearsing them - you make a decision without consciously reviewing why, and a skewed view can make a hell of a difference then.
If saying that "for doing illegal things you can get jailed and raped therefore do not do illegal things under any circumstances, except protecting yourself and your loved ones" is a warped view, than I take your comment as a compliment.
>>if a split-second comes where a mildly poor decision could get exponentially worse
I think you talk abot non existent things. Can you please explain me how can an average illegal act be a "split-second poor decision"? You can not steal a car or start dealng drugs in a split-second. Except you are Flash.
According to some scientists [1], death penalty cases have a 4.1% error rate. There's logical arguments that the error rate for life sentences is higher and for non capital felonies it might be a lot higher.
Rape-Murders have a 3.3% floor with an estimated 5% ceiling [2].
I wouldn't be shocked if the rate for the none capital convictions was in the neighborhood of 10%...well actually I am shocked about it.
There's probably also discrimination and some demographics get a lot more false convictions than others (I'd guess being poor doesn't help for example).
I do not have to have memories about being raped in the jail to know that it is a bad experience. Am I a genius?
Funny fact: I moved out with 14 to a big city for a special school and lived in a dormitory with normal guys. None of us got jailed.
I hear only bad excuses.