[prof.h.mandingo]

Ex state LEO and probation officer. I always heard from the criminal or especially from the auntie, or grandma that he (the perp) was hanging around with a bad person. I used to tell them, “Tell me who it is and we will arrest this guy that everyone else is hanging out with. We will need only one cell and there will be no more crime after we lock him up.” Silence after that speech. We used to crack up about that one.

[Arthur McGowan]

There’s a sociologist or some such in England who interviewed thousands of inmates in England. Every single one told him that he got into crime because “I fell in with a bad lot.” He never met anyone who WAS the bad lot.