The phrase "keeps honest people honest" is oft said but I think it isn't quite true to the real mechanism at play, which is a system of societal incentive structures. How about this: "locks only keep people out long enough to notice them trying to get in." The relevant factor then is the ratio of picking difficulty to situational difficulty.
You could have the worst lock in existence, but if you're using it to chain your bike to the rack next to the police station in the worlds busiest street corner, no one will ever attempt to pick it because even though they could, there's a near 100% chance of getting caught. Conversely, you can put the best lock ever constructed on a door in some secluded alleyway no one ever checks up on and it won't matter because there's no upper limit on what a thief can do without arousing suspicion, so they will simply use a blow torch.
There are neither honest people nor dishonest people, just rational incentives. The real locking mechanism is the societal system of property rights which will take you to jail if caught trying to subvert the mechanical system of property rights.
You could have the worst lock in existence, but if you're using it to chain your bike to the rack next to the police station in the worlds busiest street corner, no one will ever attempt to pick it because even though they could, there's a near 100% chance of getting caught. Conversely, you can put the best lock ever constructed on a door in some secluded alleyway no one ever checks up on and it won't matter because there's no upper limit on what a thief can do without arousing suspicion, so they will simply use a blow torch.
There are neither honest people nor dishonest people, just rational incentives. The real locking mechanism is the societal system of property rights which will take you to jail if caught trying to subvert the mechanical system of property rights.