These trends highlight how far as a society we’ve veered from the idea that shame might spur better behavior. A society that greets thieves with applause, and not social ostracization, is dystopian. It also suggests a grim future for America’s international standing; while America’s youth consume petty-crime and hot-wiring tutorials, Chinese social media, fraught as it is with censorship, promotes educational content, science experiments, and museum exhibitions to young people.

This dichotomy gets to the heart of a key component to crime prevention that has been largely absent from our national conversation: culture. Crime is prevented not just through law enforcement but also through the messages would-be offenders absorb about how society feels about criminality. Yes, culture can be harder to shift than laws, but we need to bring culture into the national conversation. Unless we do, we will find it impossible to reverse our mounting crisis of violence and disorder.