SOARES ONLY RESTATING TRUTH THAT CRIME DOES PAY

The funny thing about all the uproar surrounding David Soares'
assertion that law enforcement makes money off crime is that the fact
was acknowledged more than 100 years ago.

French sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote that "crime is normal because
a society exempt from it is utterly impossible." Societies have to
create crimes for a number of reasons. In modern cultures, one
benefit of criminalizing behavior is it provides employment for lots
of people -- not only the high-paid ones like Soares, but others as well.

Look at the uproar that greets every attempt to close prisons in New
York state. With falling numbers of convicts, no rational reason
exists for keeping many prisons open save one: closing them would put
people out of work and depress struggling rural economies.

Ironically, crime pays law abiding citizens, while successful crime
fighting or decriminalizing behaviors potentially costs those same folk.

Soares was not being a wise politician when he said what he did in
that speech in Canada, but he was being a wise social observer.

RIK SCARCE

Department of Sociology

Skidmore College

Saratoga Springs