Education and crime

[Macoleco]

I have always wondered the relation between education and crime. To be more specific, the next question: why do educated people become criminals?

The organized crime, such as the mafia, is composed by people with education. Many of its members are engineers, economists, etc. If education is supposed to keep people out of crime, then why does this happen? I know some of you may say "greed", and it is true. But I want to go deeper. I want a better explanation. I believe there are more complex answers to this phenomenon.

What impulses someone with education to seek a life of crime rather than an honest life?

[Thumpalumpacus]

An allergy to honest work?

[Macoleco]

An allergy to honest work?

A life of crime is dangerous. You risk your life and freedom. Allergy or not, it is not the ration option to choose.

[Jackalope]

An allergy to honest work?

A life of crime is dangerous. You risk your life and freedom. Allergy or not, it is not the ration option to choose.

That depends entirely what one's values are, doesn't it? If one values money more than ones own freedom or life, it could be a very rational decision.

[Thumpalumpacus]

An allergy to honest work?

A life of crime is dangerous. You risk your life and freedom. Allergy or not, it is not the ration option to choose.

The assumption that educated = rational doesn't hold up to scrutiny, in my experience.

Additionally, absent a mental disorder, it seems to me that educated criminals tend to gravitate towards Ponzi schemes and Wall Street derring-do, rather than back-alley stick-ups.

[Cato]

Educated people flew planes into skyscrapers. Perhaps there's data suggesting that intelligent people are less susceptible to ideology, but history is repleat with examples of the carnage that exists at the intersection of intelligence and ideology. Sadly, reasonableness is the first victim meaning that the use of physical force is required to clear out the intersection until the next traffic jam.

[Doubting Thomas]

I think a lot of educated people tend to commit more types of crimes with more planning, and have this idea that they're so much smarter than the police so they'll get away with it, even to the point of taunting the police. Whereas less educated people tend to commit more crimes of passion or crimes of opportunity, not putting so much thinking into the crime but instead relying to trying to lie their way out of it.

Source: Watching lots and lots of crime documentaries on TruTV, so likely not entirely accurate.