Plausible Petty Criminals

A couple of my stories feature petty criminals. I mostly use small time drug dealers, but this thread is for any sort of petty criminal.

Often the criminal is the spanker, which has led many people to ask: "How can X be judgmental when he/she is breaking the law"?

Not that I know many petty criminals but there are a few people I knew in high school who are in constant trouble with the law. I seldom run into them, but occasionally I hear about them from other old friends. Not major stuff, just minor things. None of those people see themselves as bad people. They aren't killers, they aren't particularly violent, and they tell themselves that they're doing what they need to in order to get by (and that includes hard drinking and drug use or "self medication" as they call it).

In short, they see themselves as basically moral people. Few people like thinking of themselves as "the bad guy" - at least unless they are violent criminals. They tell themselves "Sure, I might sell weed, but weed should be legal" or "sure, I might have committed dozens of petty frauds, but that's just getting the money I need to get by" and otherwise rationalise their crimes as "not that bad".

It's hard to think that someone with countless fraud convictions would try to teach their kids that lying is wrong, stealing is wrong, you should obey the law, etc - but there are countless parents out there who teach "Do as I say not as I do". I can easy see one of them handing grounding, restricting, or otherwise disciplining their kids for misbehaviour that mirrors their own criminal behaviour.


So, do people thing my petty criminals are implausible? Should I give them a different type of morality, or no morality at all?

Goodgulf

I would expect that self-justification is a very common, perhaps almost universal, trait of the petty criminal.

It is perhaps unjustified (perhaps even stupid), but the other trait I expect to find in a petty criminal is low educational attainment, if not outright stupidity.

In fact i think almost no one is consciously "evil" -- everyone has a rationalization for why what they do is right, even heroic in some cases. This is true not merely for petty criminals but for such monsters as Hitler and Stalin. Each is reported to have sincerely believed himself to be the savior of his race/nation. Criminals in general often rationalize their crimes as "just business", or so it has been reported. Many major mafia figures were local philanthropists and heavy donors to the local church, and often apparently sincerely religious and saw themselves as moral figures an an immoral world.

I recall a TV show a few years ago whose central figure was a not-so-petty criminal, a professional who specialized in elaborate bank robberies and other major "heists". While in the approach to a major crime, he gets a call from his son's school reporting that the son is in trouble, and asking him to help make sure the son behaves better -- and he is seriously concerned that his son behave well, although frustrated that he can't just drop his robbery to pick up his son. This was fiction of course, but I dound it plausible.

I recall an analysis of an aspect of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasies that pointed out evidence that even the Orcs have a moral code, and even a fairly conventional moral code at that -- they just apply it to others, not to themselves.

In short, i don't see such characters as you describe as being at all implausible.

Of course the petty criminal as the *recipient* of a spanking is also a possibly good way for a story to go.

-Don L.

That makes a good story, but most of these people are regularly "spanked" by the criminal justice system. Jail, even if it's only for a few days, is a more effective deterrent than a hot bottom. Unless the person is a teen/young adult who has never been arrested then I can't see a spanking changing their ways.

I don't think a lot of people here at the library want to get into the murder and gore of criminal activity in our stories. Petty criminals are the most fun to catch, and the story itself unfolds from there. it's up to the author to figure out who gets spanked and who's the spanker. I think in my stories it's the outlaw who ends up riding someone's lap, the end of the bed, or a special saw horse.


I have to agree with this. I've seen grown men cry. You get very little privacy even in the showers and the toilet. One who is not a hardened criminal will not want to go back to jail. A spanking only hurt for a little while, and then they're right back to the same old grind, but much more careful at it.

Not sure I agree that every criminal dreads jail. If so, why is there is much crime committed by people who have previously served time? In some subcultures, going to jail is considered a necessary rite of passage,a badge of honor even.

There are all sorts of petty crimes. Shop lifting is one we often use in the stories. Speeding or driving without a licence is another. We have what are referred to as 'car hoons' down here and they're generally young men with highly customised cars who regularly indulge in speeding or racing and sometimes road rage and don't seem to regard licence suspension as valid. The police response is to confiscate the vehicle and in some extreme cases destroy it. Vandalism is another, and that can range from wilful destruction of property to the practice of tagging. Tagging is sometimes thought of as a victimless crime, but not for the person whose wall or fence was defaced with the graffiti equivalent of a dog marking it's territory by urinating on a tree. There's also persistent offenders in the drunk and disorderly category. A hot bottom at an early stage may deter them from a life of alcoholism.

One of my favorites is spanking for underage drinking stories, especially drinking with a fake ID .Those interested my want to take a look at my 2 spring break stories wherein naughty college kids get swimsuit clad bottoms paddled. They are written as 'Newstories" aka Bared Affairs so that may not be to everyone's taste.
Of course for drunk driving, there is A Bimbo Lets Her Booty Blistered. Theft? "A Flower Thief's Painful Lesson" or "Sticky Fingers, Sore Bottoms".
Also "Don't Drive and Talk On The Cell Phone, "Melanie-White Pants ,Red Bottom" and of course the 2 Adventures of a Spanking PoliceWoman.
Agree that spanking stories where the crime is something like a major felony would not work. But there are lots of lesser offenses where that would be a good plot.
How about a story set in the 60s where some "flower children" on a commune get busted for drugs, and are given the choice of the paddle or a jail cell.?
Or from what we think of as the 50s/early 60s era some teenage boys get caught drag racing? Or just cruising around, maybe drinking beer or committing some vandalism?
And of course there is the subcategory of petty criminals-the lawbreaking celebrities, like Paris Hilton,Lindsay Lohan,Nicole Richie,Naomi Campbell and so on. Remember reading one called "Paris When She Sizzles" by the Michigan Headmaster over at MySpankingForum, I think. And would have been great material for Bared Affair or Scolded Globe had they survived.

Goodgulf

I wasn't suggesting it as a reform of the justice system, but merely as a possible source of spanking story plots. Many spanking stories have plots that aren't realistic or wouldn't work well in real lifer, but are still highly enjoyable stories. And as others have said, spanking for relatively minor crimes is a not uncommon feature of spanking stories.

The trouble here is that what is viewed as "minor" crime in one place or one person, may not be viewed as such in another place or person. As stated by others, a lot of criminals do not view what they do as wrong.

For example, a person will say "I shop lifted from Walmart. The company has billions of dollars so I have hurt no individual. I would never shop lift from a family owned small business."

Is such thinking wrong, yes it is, but a lot of people who shoplift would agree with the statement. So are minor criminals plausible...I think it depends on the situation at the time and how the situation is perceived by others in the scene. I guess I am saying, in this fantasy spanking site, you as the author can make them one way or the other and as readers we don't mind, as long as someone gets spanked.