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I thought that this book[1] was an enlightening read into the topic.

It outlined that the conventional thinking about crime falls into two broad categories: "heroes/villains" (there are bad people that just do bad and need to be stopped) vs. "victims/survivors" (criminals are effectively created by poor circumstances / just want to feed their families, etc).

The author argues (with research to back it up) that the truth is neither / both / there are other factors at play, on of the more interesting factors just being "opportunity".

[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Criminal-Truth-About-People-Things/...




I don't think your comment should be downvoted (perhaps something about the book/author itself?). The heroes/villains trope has been heavily overplayed by US culture and before 2016, by politicians of all stripes.

I've heard the police department captains in the area I live describe the scenario as a "war", "wolves and sheep", etc.

That's not to say there aren't really heroic cops or that there aren't really bad criminals, either. But the idea that either of them exist and act independently from their surrounding context, whether that is a corrupt police union or an impoverished struggling community, is very shortsighted.

If anything, that set of tropes needs to be taken down several notches, and the corruption and poverty/inequality need to be addressed directly. We've tried the approach of militarization of police and mass-imprisonment for non-violent offenses. It hasn't worked.




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