[Written in June 1997.]
Many years ago, the Dutch found that most crooks `go straight' by their mid thirties — they stop committing crimes. (I am not talking about all crooks, but of most.)
The age varies somewhat depending on how well the crooks can adapt to straight society, and this, in turn, depends in part on how the crooks are treated in prison. In countries with badly run penal systems, like the US, crooks tend to continue as crooks for longer. In countries with systems like Holland, they tend to go straight earlier.
Incidentally, one reason the Dutch look on prisons with so cynical and clear an eye is that many of their senior people were imprisoned for long periods in World War II by the Germans. As that generation's experiences are forgotten, we can expect the Dutch to change policies.
It goes without saying that the cheapest way to deal with crime is to prevent it; and the cheapest way to prevent it is to teach parents, especially mothers, how to bring up babies, and to provide them with the nutrition and other support that makes this possible. A person who is against tax-payer funded pre-natal care is soft on crime.
As for older boys (crooks are mainly boys or men), activities like `midnight basketball' really do help keep them straight. And so do '60s ideas such as cops who walk or bicycle their beats. As the sheriff of the next county said recently, with regard to his proposing more of these programs, "I don't want to be called a liberal, but ...."
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