Every Crime has Many Costs. And They're Higher Than we Think.

My son’s car was stolen in November. He was in Nashville, visiting his girlfriend. It turns out that several cars were stolen the same night, and had been on other recent nights, in the same area. Police recovered his car the next day, which was wonderful. But it had been significantly damaged.

The car was not totaled, a blessing since all cars seem to be totaled these days. However the process of having it repaired has been long and arduous. If all goes well, his car will be finished and returned to him next weekend, about six weeks from the crime.

Police believed that these thefts were simply due to young people ‘joy riding.’ As we all know, it is unlikely that anyone will be convicted or suffer consequences for these actions. Law enforcement is generally understaffed and overwhelmed in large cities. There are far more dangerous crimes to interdict than car theft. Nationwide initiatives to de-fund the police have been far too successful. There is obviously a price.

It would be easy for some to suggest that the theft of his car, a non-violent crime, was really no big deal. In the greater scheme of things, nobody was physically hurt. The property was located. Kids being kids, right?

Anyone who says that forgets that there are many costs and consequences to even small crimes. For instance, this theft cost my son his deductible. A young man in a new job doesn’t want to pay $500 for a criminal act done by someone else to his property. But he had to pay it. The insurance company doesn’t want to pay the amount of money, in material and labor, that will be required to repair his car. It hurts their bottom line. Further, it may well raise my son’s insurance rates, through no action of his own.

There were other costs. The theft of his car kept him from his family on Thanksgiving. He has precious little vacation time and that was stolen from him as surely as the vehicle. It cost him the inconvenience of obtaining a rental, and the endless misery of phone trees, emails and texts necessary to get his car from the police lot, begin and maintain the process of towing, assessing the damage, towing again and having it repaired. It will cost him the time and money to go two states away to pick up the car, which couldn’t be towed closer to his home. (Thus it could cost him even more vacation time from work, which cold be used more pleasurably.)

This was not a victimless crime. Even though he wasn’t injured physically, he was injured financially; and even emotionally, since these things always feel invasive.

He has good insurance. (Hat tip USAA! https://www.usaa.com/)

What if he hadn’t? What if he had minimal coverage and couldn’t get a rental, or another car. What if he were a man or woman with a family to support, barely getting by, who couldn’t get to work on time and was fired? What if that meant his wife and children lost their insurance?

But this is the nature of things now. There is this general sense that truly antisocial behaviors like theft are simply to be tolerated, because some of those doing them are poor, disadvantaged, ignorant or angry. And because somehow, the crimes just don’t matter. At least not to people who do not suffer from them.

What this overlooks is, again, the price of these actions. A store robbed is a business which may never recover. It may be a family business which is damaged beyond repair, which cannot be insured again, which can no longer support the family which paid for success by investing all of their savings and working night and day. A store robbed might mean a family cannot send their children to college. It might mean the loss of all of the savings that they had planned on for retirement.

Not only so, things stolen might mean that the important services or products the store provided are not available. A pharmacy in a poor part of town, or very rural area, is necessary to families. It provides medical supplies, hygiene products, prescription drugs, formula, diapers, food and a host of other things. When mobs come through and strip its shelves, there are more casualties than the owners. Even if it is owned by a large national chain, those who count on the products and services are impacted terribly. I saw a video of a woman weeping after her neighborhood Walmart (or was it Walgreen?) was left empty. ‘Where am I going to get formula for my baby now?’ Indeed, where will grandfather get his insulin? Where will grandmother get her antibiotics? Eventually, these stores abandon places where theft is tolerated and simply make the area into a pharmacy desert; or a food desert in the case of grocery stores.

The people who counted on these jobs? Unemployed. Devastated.

All of the same holds true for riots. When ‘protestors’ burn down neighborhoods, homes are lost, memories are lost, livelihoods go up in smoke. Sometimes the places never recover. The businesses are gone. Who would invest there again?

Young people being young people? Young people devastating others. Free speech? Free reign of terror.

The same thing holds true of violence. We often hear that fights with fists, knives or sticks or fists are not nearly as concerning as those involving firearms. A police officer or civilian who uses a firearm against someone using an edged weapon, club or other item is deemed to have used an unfair advantage.

But there is no fight between adults (in age or size) which isn’t dangerous. Knives kill, ball-bats kill. Early in my career I saw a man die from a crushed trachea; his throat was stomped in a drunken fight as he lay on the ground. No knife, no gun. People beating or stabbing other people leave concussions, brain hemorrhages, seizures, brain damage, paralysis, terrible facial and dental trauma, collapsed lungs, bowel injuries with colostomies, broken bones, sometimes lifelong disability; not to mention the PTSD of being attacked and almost killed. These people lose the ability to work or care for family members, temporarily or permanently. A high price even if they don’t die.

I know of a man who was caring for troubled youth when one of them ambushed him with a pool cue, striking him across the bridge of his nose. No big deal? The injury permanently damaged his olfactory nerve, leaving him unable to smell anything for life. A heavy cost.

My son will recover from this. Thank God he wasn’t dragged from his car and beaten senseless. Or beaten to death. Thank God it was only a car.

But ultimately, every crime is a violation of the rule of law, and of the freedom and security of individuals. Every crime has a price beyond the value of the item or the time. Every theft steals from the wealth of the nation. Every assault is an attack on all of us.

Just as tragic, by failing to correct these behaviors we allow criminals (especially the young) to descend further and further into criminality and dysfunctional lives. We consign them to lives as perpetual predators when they might be saved. We leave them susceptible to the remorse and guilt that some might later develop with age. We allow their souls to be harmed by their actions, over and over again.

I hope it changes. But I’m starting to fear that we may simply have gone too far to turn back.

Be safe out there.

Edwin

For tips on safety I recommend the excellent articles at Active Response Training:

https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/