In my experience both are true (and intrinsically linked): people I know who engage in various degrees of criminal activity both move in circles where this is a

In my experience both are true (and intrinsically linked): people I know who engage in various degrees of criminal activity both move in circles where this is acceptable, and in large part because of these circles they perceive themselves as not being criminals (but rather misunderstood, fighting the man, not buying into society's beliefs, etc.). Another good example of this dynamic can be seen with alcoholics (whichever stage of alcoholism they might be in). I read recently that apparently about 30% of the US population does not drink at all, and about 10% are outliers (10+ drinks per day!). http://kottke.org/14/10/the-united-states-of-alcoholism http://kottke.org/14/10/the-united-states-of-alcoholism. Having been a non-drinker for most of my life, and a heavy drinker for part of my life, in both cases I felt I was (mostly) 'average'. Of course, what I failed to take into account was that in my non-drinking period I was part of a community of non-drinkers, and I barely interacted with those who drink a lot, whereas in my drinking period I didn't interact with the 'boring lot' who don't drink and leave parties at such early times as 12 PM. Another example of this is sexuality. I spent a significant period of of my life practicing abstinence (conservative christian), and a more recent period in an environment where casual sex was the norm. I always thought that this more recent period was the actual 'normal', until I decided to look up 'actual' averages. I thought having a sexual partner count in the double-digits was pretty normal, but apparently here in Holland the average amount of partners is around 6, and the median is lower than that.