Is it crime or unacceptability? For instance, if someone takes a life while defending themselves we call it justifyable, if its an accident then it becomes manslaughter, but if it is intentional it's murder. So where are the guidelines? Morality of course, but then who sets those standards? Humans do, so really it comes down to what is humane and what is not. Helping kittens- very humane, robbing the same people later - mistake, but if you only helped with the kittens to aid in your later theft...then that is not humane. When you are stealing to support your family does the rule change? Of course not, theft is theft, murder is murder. How you "feel" about the crime I think is what sets it apart. If you feel bad for having hurt someone then you have the morality to have made a better choice. However, if you only feel bad for having been caught then your morility is useless and your humanity non-existent. Price and risk are a funny thing, what I might be willing to do is different then what someone else might be willing to do...and of course the reasoning will also be different. I would give my life for my son, but would I give it if it was to help him hurt someone else?... No, I don't think I would...but someone else might for their child. We are no different out here...the same thoughts and ideas run through our minds... when you don't have money to pay bills or put food on the table and it feels like the only alternative is to rob someone, the thoughts are most definitly present, the ideas running rampant, but the decision to not do it is what sets us apart. The notion that if I'm caught and go to jail I would be no better off helping than I am now and I would also be away from ever helping when I could, is not the only reason... There is something that clicks in my mind, something that says that it feels wrong. That little voice of humanity and morality kicks in, that not only am I jeopordizing myself, but I'm hurting someone else...that's what would stop me. Its not someone being more intelligent than another, but I think some of us act on our thoughts before our brains have time to suss out the situation. Patience I hear after all, is a virtue. So to answer your question, the difference between us on the outside and those on the inside is time. Given more time to think through what you had done, would you still have done it?

XOXO, Sissy