Comment by emmelaich

> Society's tolerance for crime is bizarrely irrational.

   In 1940, a survey was taken of teachers asking them
   to list the five most important problems in school.
   They were: (1) talking out of turn; (2) chewing gum;
   (3) making noise; (4) running in halls; and (5) cutting
   in line.

   Fifty years later, the survey was repeated. The 1990
   list was substantially revised: (1) drug abuse;
   (2) alcohol abuse; (3) pregnancy; (4) suicide;
   (5) rape.

From http://www.aei.org/publication/defining-deviancy-up/, Charles Krauthammers corollary to Pat Moynihan's Defining Deviancy Down. http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/formans/DefiningDeviancy.htm

Still good reading and still controversial after all these years.