Our Threatened Freedom

Does Crime Pay

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 127-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 127

Dictation Name: Vol. J - Part 10 - Does Crime Pay

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] Does crime pay? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

A great many people in California were very unhappy recently, because a conman was released from prison after serving only 3 years of a 9 year sentence. This man robbed a number of people of nine million dollars by operating a supposed investment business which was actually an elaborate Ponzi scheme. The conman thus served 3 years, or paid a year for each three million dollars in profit per year. An attorney for some of the victims said of {?}, where the conman was incarcerated, quote, “It’s a country club, not a prison. They’ve got tennis courts, a lovely swimming pool, and a very lovely exercise room. The prisoners live in dorm style housing.” Unquote. Some of this conman’s victims lost their savings and their homes. The conman lost 3 years of his time, and nothing more. Clearly this is not justice. Very obviously crime paid very well for this man and many others.

Prisons are no deterrent to crime even at their worst, and the growing crime rate is of concern to all of us. It is time then to reconsider what the Bible requires with respect to criminal offenses. The basic premise of biblical justice is restitution. Restitution places the penalty on the criminal, not on the victim. If a man steals 100 dollars, he must restore 100 dollars plus a penalty of another 100. Depending on the kind of thing stolen, restitution can be up to five-fold, according to Exodus 22 verse 1. If a man cannot make restitution, he must become a bondservant and by compulsory labor, be in servitude until restitution is fully made. For capital offenses, capital punishment is required by the Bible.

In some states and localities we are seeing a return to the principle of restitution. In this system, the criminal is penalized, not the victim.

A recent case revealed that one particularly degenerate criminal, whose profits run into millions of dollars, has deposited these funds in foreign banks. Such a step makes retirement abroad easier after a brief spell in prison at the tax payers’ expense. The courts never asked the conman who robbed trusting people of nine million dollars to repay anyone. As taxpayers, all of them helped to support in prison the man who destroyed them, and they know that he will now have a beautiful home to return to, plus a mansion in Hawaii. Crime does pay.

This is one reason why crime is a major growth business. Big money is being made in crime; I doubt that Benjamin Franklin would say today that honesty is the best policy. Honesty is the only moral and godly way of life, but our laws and courts are hardly making it a good policy.

Any society in which crime pays is in deep, deep trouble.

This has been R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.