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(3) The criminaloid practices a
protective mimicry of the good, a
form
of godliness. (4) The criminal–
oíd hides within the support of a
local specialized society. put ti ng loy–
alty to it before ethics toward so–
ciety; (5) T he criminaloid flourishes
in his crimes until discovered by
outside inves tiga tion. He wiU no t
quit voluntarily (excerpted from
At–
/antic Monthly,
Jan. 1907, pp. 44-
50).
Very few of us can cla im to be
free of all five of the above charac–
teristics. Un fortuna tely, such "white
collar" crime exceeds in volume the
overt crime of the F.B.I. index,
which wiJI account this year for over
two million burglarized homes, one
million sto len cars, one-t hird rnillion
assau lts a nd robberies, 40,000 rapes
a nd 20,000 murders.
Can Crime Be Stopped?
Crime prevention is usua lly ap–
proached from the a ngle o f self-pro–
tection : Be ca reful abou t wa lking
the streets at night. Outfit all doors
with dead - bolt locks . Wome n ,
scream loudly when a ttacked, etc.
Others stress tha t cri me could be
preven ted if there were sti ffer penal–
Líes. Reinstitute the death pena lty
and throw mo re ha rden ed criminals
in prison fo r longer slre tches. and
crime wou ld decline. they claim.
Still o lhers prefer to lake t he soci–
ological overview, reasoning that if
everyone were comfortably middl e
class, if inner city ghetto poverty did
no t exist, then the incidence of
crime would decrease.
None of these ideas are really
righl or wrong by themselves. Taken
together, all three combined would
certai nly diminish the crime rate, al–
lhough at a cosl of billions of dol–
la rs. Bul prisons. locks, and welfare
money canno t change the inner mo–
tiva tion causi ng most crimes.
The on ly real solution lí es in the
heart of each individual. As the
prophet J eremiah wrote, "The heart
[of man] is the most deceitful thing
there is. and desperately wicked. No
one can rea lly know how bad it is!"
(Jer. 17:9,
The Living Bible.)
18
The big question, then, is what on
earth can change criminal motiva–
tions within human na ture? Are
there any reco rded examples of
large groups of people who have
managed to overcome the problem
of public and prívate criminal
action?
" What Shall W e Do?"
The history of one such large
group is recounted in the biblical
book of Acts. Tens of thousands of
people from a ll nations o f th e
Middle East a nd Near East were
convening on the day of Pentecost
to hear the apostle Peter deliver
what turned out to be the first re–
corded se rmon of the New Testa–
ment Christian Church.
Peter moved the overflowing
crowd to rea lize that they were di–
rectly guilty of a capital crime. com–
plicity in the murder of Jesus Christ.
Many of the a udience were struck
wi th enough remorse to ask, "Wha t
sha ll we do?"
The answer Peter gave them was
st raightforward and simple. He did
not advise them to go lo th e nearest
police conslable and lurn them–
selves in for voluntary ma nslaugh–
ter. He did no t advise lhey do
penance in a pentitentiary.
Instead , he said, " Repent. a nd be
baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the rernis–
sion of sins. and ye shall receive the
gift of the Ho ly Ghost [Spirit]" (Acts
2:38). H is answer must have been
qu ite etfecti ve, because " ... they
that glad ly received b is word were
baptized; and the same day there
were added unto them about
lhree
thousand souls"
(Acts 2:4 1)
To these 3,000 new Ch ristians. the
word "repent" had a ra lher differ–
en t connotalion lhan today. since
the ranks of nominal Christi a nity
had not yet been defilcd by the
wi ld-eyed evange li sts who seem
fond of making a mockery of the
experience. During Peter's day. lo
" repenl " mcant simply to ma ke a
heartfelt decision lo change one's
basically se l.fish orientalion in to a
positive g iving and serving way of
life.
This positive mental attitude is re–
ftected by the commands of Jesus to
"!ove your neighbor as you rself '
and "i t is more blessed to give than
lo receive ."
When lhousands of people took
Christ's and Peter's message seri–
ously, repented. and received the
Ho ly Spir it, the ir own personal
crime rate plummeled spec tacularly.
Most importantly, their "secret" sins
and crimes diminished forthwilh.
YOUR Crime Can Be
Stopped
No one seriously expecls the en–
ti re nalion or world to repenl lomor–
row. Short of lhe return o f Jesus
Christ and the millennium of his
rule, il would take an unthinkably
ha rsh police state lo eliminate aU
crime fr om " thi s presenl evil
world."
Even in the mosl repressive so–
cielies on eart h, crime slill exists.
There is no way you can stop crime
in others around you. Therefore it is
only sensible ro take preca utions
against becomi ng a victin1 of crime.
But far more imporlanl than
these heJpfu l hints is the need to
realize who lhe real criminal is: a ll
of us ! To control crime everyone
should realize that there is all too
much of the criminal element in
eve ry one of us, and thal even " law
abiding" citizens a re prone to com–
mit cri.mes of convenience and op–
portuni ty.
Crime ilself i nota disease. nora
passing social phenoména of lhe
twent ieth cent ury. but an unpl eas–
ant aspect o f human nature we
could all cont rol. Each person must
learn to rega rd his neighbor as
highly as he rega rds himself. This is
lh e on ly ultimare solution lo crime.
You've probably seen the TV
show "To Tell the Truth" on wh ich
all three panelists shuffie in their
chairs before one finally rises in re–
sponse to the command. "Will the
real
John Doe please stand up."
We ask. "Wi ll the rea l crimina l
please stand up?" If you see the
point of t his article and respond to
it. you may remain sealed. O
PLAIN TRUTH
January
1975