Then maybe society should be improved upon so that a few dollars or a few minutes of "fun" or "street cred" isn't seen as such a boon to their life that people risk jail time for it.
The US tried "tough on crime" approaches, what has it resulted in? 25% of the entire world's prison population and it still has higher crime rates than its peer nations.
Nobody goes to jail for stealing bikes. Here, the cops will take a report but that's it. It doesn't get investigated. There's a very good chance any homeless person with a bike is in posession of a stolen bike but they don't even fish in that barrel.
"Let's go get sushi and not pay." -- Repo Man, 1984.
That's into the absurdist territory, but it reflects the real pattern of behavior. People do go around committing petty crimes for various reasons.
And you presume that type of criminality would remain about the same regardless of how society is organized or what type of culture is reinforced?
I think there are many other and better things to try than the repeated failure of trying to catch and punish crimes even more harshly.
There is a large amount of people who go around stealing bikes for fun and some cash; and often "street cred" or something akin to that.
Then maybe society should be improved upon so that a few dollars or a few minutes of "fun" or "street cred" isn't seen as such a boon to their life that people risk jail time for it.
The US tried "tough on crime" approaches, what has it resulted in? 25% of the entire world's prison population and it still has higher crime rates than its peer nations.
Nobody goes to jail for stealing bikes. Here, the cops will take a report but that's it. It doesn't get investigated. There's a very good chance any homeless person with a bike is in posession of a stolen bike but they don't even fish in that barrel.
Good plan; instead of a decent bike lock, and asking for some (read: ANY) enforcement & punishment of bike theft I'll just "improve society".
nobody steals bikes to buy milk for their baby either.
My brother in Christ.