Exactly!!! See Jack Katz, _Seductions of Crime_ perhaps one of the best and empirically grounded inquiries into criminal behavior.
Also, crime is often an informally sanctioned way of problem solving and getting high peer esteem in a particular social groups - corporations and street gangs alike. Violence is often projected as a legitimate means of conflict resolution, especially by governments waging acts of war - see Dane Archer, _Violence and Crime in International Perspective_.
Given the fact that crime pays and is fun - the real question is what keeps people from doing it, rather than why people do it. Given its glamour, instant high and gratification, and peer respect it earns you - one needs to explain why most people, after all, do not engage in criminal activity. The best answer social sciences provided so far is "stakes in community." People who have stakes in a broader community are less likely to violate the norms of that community.
From that it follows that:
- those who do not have stakes in a community, either because the community is weak or because they are alienated from it, are more likely to engage in criminal behavior; and - those who have stakes in dysfunctional or criminal communities, such as certain corporations or street gangs, are more likely to engage in criminal behavior because that behavior is sanctioned by the norm of these communities.
I really cannot understand the infatuation that many American, including those on this list have with crime and violence. I find violence repulsive under _any_ circumstances.
Wojtek