Perhaps the price for committing crime is very high. Or poverty in a given place is not actually a life of misery. In my experience, especially in South Americ

Perhaps the price for committing crime is very high. Or poverty in a given place is not actually a life of misery. In my experience, especially in South America, the twin forces of poverty and civic dysfunction produce desperation - and that seems the driving force behind the sorts of “crime in the streets” that gets headlines. Of course in other places on the same continent corruption (narco, mining, logging, etc) produce violent crime that plays out quite differently.