World View | What the Netherlands Metro Taught Me about Crime

On Dutch trams, it seems, cheating the fare system would pay. Why are riders so honest?

people who were able to avoid the inspectors by dashing off the tram just as they were boarding or the people who simply fooled the inspectors by standing next to the stamp machine on the tram and then quickly stamping their tickets just as the inspectors were boarding.

Logically, then, it would seem that crime could conceivably pay in the Dutch tram system. But, in my experience, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Whenever the inspectors do board, I observe closely to see if they ever catch someone cheating. Sometimes they do, but it is very rare--perhaps one inspection in four do they ever catch someone, and then usually only one person for an entire tram full of people. It would seem that the Dutch are largely voluntarily complying with paying even though they could probably get away with not doing so. In terms of deterrence theory, this made no sense. Clearly something else was at work. People seemed to be acting based on motives other than avoiding punishment or seeking personal gain.

Then, I remembered something from an ethics class I had once taken in university. A gentleman named Kohlberg developed something called a hierarchy of moral maturity. (See chart below). At the bottom of the moral maturity level a person did something merely to avoid punishment (stage 1). At stage 2, the person acted only to maximize his own personal benefit. At the higher stages, a person acted because he recognized that there were higher universal moral principles at stake. Under Kohlberg’s system, therefore, deterrence theory would be directed at people on the lowest rung of moral maturity. They would comply because if they didn’t then they would be hurt in some way. At the higher stages, however, people acted out of concern for the greater society and not just to avoid punishment or maximize their own personal benefit.

Kohlberg Moral Stage	Basis of Action	Motivation
1. Naive moral realism	Based on rules	Avoidance of punishment
2. Pragmatic morality	Based on desire to maximize benefit to self	Greed
3. Socially shared perspectives	Based on approval of others	Avoidance of guilt from disapproval of society
4. Social system morality	Based on avoidance of formal dishonour from society	Sense of personal honour
5. Human rights and social welfare morality	Consider right and values that ought to exist in a moral society	Maintain self respect and respect of community
6. Universal ethical principles	Perspective is the moral view for all human beings	Action determined by equality, fairness and concerns of all humanity