Who do you think breaks the law in our society? If you believe that only tough guys commit crimes, you may have to think again. Answer the following questions honestly. Has anyone you know ever driven drunk? Can you think of a friend who has used drugs? Are you aware that your parents may not always tell the truth when they go through customs? Won't some of your friends admit that they have stolen an item from a store? Have any of your friends ever copied a CD onto a tape for someone else?

In case you did not know, all of these acts are against the law. Now, among the people you know, how many have never broken the law? Does that mean that most members of our society should go to jail? Unlike in the movies, we can't divide the world into bad guys and model citizens. Real life is much more complex. In the same way that diseases range from the common cold to fatal forms of cancer, crimes vary in degree. For example, smoking in an elevator will inconvenience people, but much less than threatening them with a gun.

In addition to breaking the law themselves, people tolerate various levels of crime. Why are we tolerant of some crimes? It may be that, by seeing others do something, we accept it more easily. We may even start committing that crime ourselves. For instance, most people will find it easier to speed on a highway when everybody else is driving over the speed limit. When people celebrate a sports championship, if they see someone breaking store windows, they might start breaking windows themselves or even steal from the store. So the people around us influence how much law-breaking we can tolerate.

We must also wonder whether seeing violence on television or reading about it in the newspapers every day makes us tolerate crime more than we should. We become used to seeing blood on the news on television, or in full color in newspapers and magazines. Because we see thousands of dead people on TV, maybe we just try to ignore the situation behind the violence.

If so many citizens tolerate violence and crime, or even commit crimes themselves, it may simply be because of the human mind. Our minds may not care about specific laws. Instead, our minds may have a system of values that usually prevents us from hurting other people to improve our own lives. Yet, when it comes to respecting the rights of a mass of anonymous individuals, we might not be so responsible. While most people would not steal a wallet containing $50, they may not mind cheating on taxes, because cheating on taxes does not hurt any one person. It hurts society, but "society" remains an abstract idea that is not as real as a neighbor or a friend's friend. Perhaps this is why someone who robs a few dollars by force from a corner store will often end up with a longer jail term than a fraud artist who swindles thousands of dollars: threatening the life of an individual is not acceptable in our society.

When we look at the questions in the first paragraph and realize that many people have misconceptions about law-breaking, we could think it is surprising that only about 10% of Canadians have a criminal record. How could we improve the level of honesty in our society? Would a larger police force keep everyone honest? Would severe laws help make our society better? Probably not. The police would never be able to keep an eye on everyone, and people would still find ways to bend new laws. Honesty will have to come from social pressure: in the family, at school, on the job, each and every one of us can encourage honesty by showing which behaviors are unacceptable. Teaching respect should become everyone's responsibility.

你认为在我们的社会里哪些人会触犯法律？如果你认为只有暴徒才会犯罪，那你可能就必须重新考虑考虑了。老老实实地回答下列问题：你所认识的人中有没有人曾经有酒后开车的行为？你能否想起来，你有个朋友曾经使用过毒品？你有没有觉察到你父母在过海关时很可能并不总是讲老实话的？难道你的朋友没有人曾经把激光唱碟CD上的内容替另外一个人转录到录音带上？

假如你过去不懂，那么现在你应该知道，这一切做法都是违法的。那么，现在看看在你所认识的人中，有多少人根本从严就没犯过法？那么，这是否意味着把我们这个社会的绝大多数成员都该关押起来？跟电影片子里的情况不同，我们不能把世人简单地分成坏蛋和好人。真实的生活要复杂得多。人生病，有的是普普通通的着凉，也有形形色色致使的癌症，罪行同样也会有严重程度上的不同。例如，在电梯里抽烟会使人感到讨厌，但总比用枪来威胁他人要轻得多。

人们除了自己会犯法，一般也能容忍程度不同的罪行。人们为什么会容忍某些罪行呢？这可能是因为看看其他人干了某件事，我们就轻易接受。我们自己甚至会开始犯那种罪行。例如，在公路上大家都超速行驶时，大多数人都会发现自己也比较容易超速行驶。当人们在庆贺某项体育冠军时，如果他们看见某人正在砸烂商店的橱窗，也许他们自己也会开始动手去砸橱窗，甚至会从商店里偷东西。所以我们周围的人会影响到我们对违法行为的容忍程度。

我们也可能会怀疑，是否因为我们每天都看到电视上的暴力场面，每天都读报报纸上的暴力新闻，这一切都使得我们对本来不应容忍的犯罪行为变得更加能够容忍了。看到电视新闻中的血腥场面或看到报刊上的五颜六色的血腥图片，我们现在已经习以为常了。因为我们在电视上看到了成千上万的死人，也许我们就不大理会在这些暴行场面背后的情况了。

如果有非常多的市民能容忍暴力和犯罪行为，甚至这些市民自己就在搞犯罪活动，这很可能只是因为人的思想在作怪。我们思想对某些具体的法律条文可能不够重视，代替这些法律条文的是我们思想中有一套自己的是非价值观念。这些观念使我们不能为了改善自己的生活而去伤害他人。然而，当涉及到尊重众多的无名小辈的权利时，我们很可能就不那么认真负责地对待这些问题了。尽管绝大多数人不会去偷窃里面装有50美元的一个男用皮钱包，但是他们很可能在交税方面有欺骗行为，偷税漏税。因为偷税漏税不会伤害任何一个具体的人。偷税漏税伤害到社会，不过"社会"仍然是个抽象概念，社会并不像某位邻居或某朋友的朋友那样具体的人。也许这就是之所以一个人从街拐角的一家商店里抢劫力三两美元，其后果常常要比诈骗了数千美元的冒牌艺术家蹲监狱的刑期还长的原因：用武力来威胁任何一个人的生命在我们的社会里都是根本不能允许的。

当我们看了本文第一段中的几个问题并且我们意识到了许多人对犯法这一概念有错误的理解之后，加拿大人只有百分之十的人有过前科，这一点非常令人吃惊。我们怎样和能让我们的社会中的人变得更加诚实呢？扩大警力的队伍会让每个人都诚实吗？严厉的法律有助至高无上我们把社会搞得更好一些吗？未必会吧。警察们永远也不会用眼睛盯着每一个人，人们总会找出种种办法去曲解新颁布的法律条文。诚实将不得不来自社会上的压力：在家里，在学校，在工作岗位上，我们每个人以及我们全体都要鼓励诚实的言行。要表明哪些行为是人们所不能接受的。教会人们尊重别人也教会人们自我尊重，应该成为每个人的职责。