Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Crime is misdirected energy caused by institutions that force people into unhappy lives.
- In plain terms
- Crime happens when people hate their lives and institutions fail them.
- What can you take from it?
- Fix institutions to reduce crime.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How much crime is structural versus personal?
- What institutions contribute most to crime?
Another view
Some crime occurs regardless of institutional conditions.
More from Emma Goldman
Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.
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