Det gjorde jeg. Jeg mener at det er en grunn til det relativt høyere straffenivået vi ser i resten av verden kontra Norge, som har ett svært lavt straffenivå. Min tanke var at om resten av verden skulle innføre et skandinavisk straffenivå, ville det medføre sosialt forfall, fordi vi har ett spesielt høyt nivå av sosial tillit.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4744856/

I denne undersøkelsen ser vi at det som sterkest forhindrer ulovlige handlinger, er sosial fordømmelse. Det er typisk for et tillitssamfunn som Norge.

Some researchers have proposed that the deterrent effects of legal sanctions are stronger when internal sanctions are lax, though others have argued in favor of purely additive effects (Grasmick and Green, 1980, 1981). Supporting the interaction hypothesis, we observed a significant positive interaction between legal and internal sanction threats, an effect also observed by Wenzel (2004) in his study of tax evasion among Australian citizens. In our international sample, the interaction was evident in every country except Colombia. Follow-up moderation analyses showed that the effect of legal sanctions was significant only when internal sanctions were lax; however, the moderation was significant for only four of the seven illegal actions (in contrast to Wenzel’s findings, the effect was not significant for tax evasion). These results suggest that the interaction between legal and internal sanctions may depend on the particular action.

Undersøkelsen viser iallfall at denne kompensasjonen mellom lav sosial fordømmelse og sterke legale virkemidler ikke kan utelukkes.

Det er vanskelig å bevise helt. Men Broken windows er som det sies:

In fact, it’s hard to think of a policy option for fixing a major social problem that is as strongly supported—by both experience and solid research—as is Broken Windows.

Politikken virker iallfall i et samfunn som USA. Spørsmålet må da være om det er noe annet som virker bedre.