Pubdate: Sat, 20 May 2006
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright: 2006 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact: http://www.timesunion.com/forms/emaileditor.asp
Website: http://www.timesunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452
Author: Rik Scarce
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

SOARES ONLY RESTATING TRUTH THAT CRIME DOES PAY

The funny thing about all the uproar surrounding David Soares' 
assertion that law enforcement makes money off crime is that the fact 
was acknowledged more than 100 years ago.

French sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote that "crime is normal because 
a society exempt from it is utterly impossible." Societies have to 
create crimes for a number of reasons. In modern cultures, one 
benefit of criminalizing behavior is it provides employment for lots 
of people -- not only the high-paid ones like Soares, but others as well.

Look at the uproar that greets every attempt to close prisons in New 
York state. With falling numbers of convicts, no rational reason 
exists for keeping many prisons open save one: closing them would put 
people out of work and depress struggling rural economies.

Ironically, crime pays law abiding citizens, while successful crime 
fighting or decriminalizing behaviors potentially costs those same folk.

Soares was not being a wise politician when he said what he did in 
that speech in Canada, but he was being a wise social observer.

RIK SCARCE

Department of Sociology

Skidmore College

Saratoga Springs
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