The Dividends of Crime

Contrary to the proverb, crime does pay - otherwise it wouldn’t be so lucrative or prevalent.  Some people make enormous sums of money from crime; they are often hidden behind walls of impunity, rarely prosecuted.  They may not sleep well but they do tend to live well. Their consciences may be troubled but not, it seems, enough. Their children rarely know what it is dad does, and what they don’t know isn’t hurting them. For their wives/partners ignorance is bliss as well a life of ease and luxury. 

To them crime pays handsomely, although always at someone’s cost. 

In accordance with the proverb, crime doesn’t pay. Those caught will testify to this, as will their families who are victims as much as the crime’s victims. A criminal’s family will no longer either sleep or live well. 

So, whether crime pays or doesn’t depend on whether you are caught and made to pay. 

For those caught the impact goes far beyond their likely incarceration. It reaches, devastatingly, into their own homes, woman and children often reduced to penury.  In this, crime not only doesn’t pay - but it also impoverishes. Social welfare doesn’t fill the fridge, pay the mortgage or school fees of the family of the incarcerated.

The careless selfishness of the criminal rarely considers the brutal realities their families are faced with when the gavel brings down their sentence. The sentence the family receives is harsher in many ways – condemning children to poverty and, sadly, the likelihood of a life of crime for themselves. 

The dividends of crime for the victims are loss and violation. The dividends for the perpetrators are regret, waste, and estrangement from the people they say they love. Love is never the sentiment of regret – it is only ever discerned in action, and a criminal’s actions mock their verbalized familial affections; if they did love their families, they wouldn’t be in prison.

Ultimately crime makes everyone the poorer, even those enriched by it. Its dividend is loss.