Everybody Does It!: Crime by the Public

Christopher English is a history professor at the Memorial University of
Newfoundland.

Aiming to “debunk the polarized view of humanity ... that we are
either criminals or law-abiding, scoundrels or trustworthy,” Gabor
argues that all of us are actually, or potentially, criminals, and that
criminal behavior arises out of stress, financial pressure, and
opportunity. Who among us, he asks, has not come away with a hotel towel
as a “souvenir,” cheated on our income taxes, or “stolen” time
from our employers by lingering at the water cooler? While these may lie
at the less serious end of criminal behavior, more-serious offences
distinguished by violence, for example, comprise roughly 10 percent of
crime. But society stereotypes this minority as “criminal,”
categorizing its members by age, gender, and social status—young,
male, and working class—as people apart. By this means, the privileged
and the fortunate maintain their self-esteem by shifting responsibility
for crime to others, and leave the issue of crime prevention to the
state.

Gabor proposes that instead of asking why people commit crime, we
should inquire into its near-universality. Instead of asking why some
people are more involved in crime than others, we should address their
degree of involvement. He offers a “predictive model for
criminality,” which even nonexperts may find at best commonsensical
and at worst trite. On the issue of crime prevention, he calls for
grassroots community involvement in educating the public about the
nature and universality of crime, exposing the self-serving
justifications (“Everybody does it!”) for the “less serious” or
“social” crimes that are deeply embedded in the popular mind.

It is unclear what audience Gabor is writing for. Is it his fellow
professionals, about whom he is sometimes critical? Is it beginning
students of criminology, framers of public policy, or interested
laypersons? Exercising their prerogative to select, each will find
aspects of this extended discussion that will appeal.