Recently, there has been a lot of debate in the media about certain horrific crimes. Some people believe that only draconian sentences will serve as a deterrent. Indeed, the general public, in its vast majority, seems to welcome harsh sentences handed down by our courts.

As a person who is in contact on a regular basis with persons behind bars, I have often reflected on what leads a person to break the law and commit a crime. The answers may seem to be deceptively simple but mature reflection and experience in crime-related environments tends to show that the real answers are much more complicated.

One of the most important factors in the road to criminal activity is that of a person’s character. Many people commit crimes because they are weak characters. Faced with a serious problem, they tend to take the easy way out which often means breaking the law. Such people are also the first to succumb to peer pressures even when this means participating in anti-social and delinquent activities.

Then there is the question of the particular environment a person grows up in. It is obvious that growing up in an environment where domestic violence is the order of the day, where one’s sense of self-esteem is shattered at an early age through the humiliations borne on a daily basis, makes a person more vulnerable to the possibility of embarking on a life of crime than someone else brought up in a more tranquil and stable environment.

However, even all these factors do not adequately explain why a person lapses into a life of crime. I have sometimes met persons who are very strong characters, who have had an excellent education and who have benefited from a stable family background and, yet, not only have they broken the law on several occasions but they have also become hardened criminals. How does one explain this phenomenon?

Strangest of all are those cases where you have a person who has led an exemplary life for many years and then something seems to snap inside him/her and he/she commits a horrendous crime that leads to a draconian prison sentence.

I have met persons who seem to be the gentlest of creatures, persons that one would be delighted to have as friends. Then one discovers the crimes committed by such persons and one is baffled by such uncharacteristic behaviour. An exemplary life ruined by one single moment of madness!

The origins of crime remain a complex issue to be endlessly discussed and analysed. The law-abiding citizen can do something positive by always giving a good example through all his/her actions. Remember that the person who sees you breaking the law in small things is getting the message that it is okay to break the law if you can get away with it.

Driving your car through a street with a “No Entry” sign because you are in a hurry, making hefty profits in business through charging exorbitant prices, polluting the environment, all these actions can have a negative influence on persons who are potential criminals.

Indeed, those who end up in jail often complain that there is no real justice in this world. They maintain that the “top criminals” never get caught but only the “petty criminals” end up behind bars. They also stress that everybody breaks the law at one time or another but only the unlucky ones get caught and have to pay for it.

The debate continues.