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?

success defined by wealth and one in which the government is, at best, thought to be a bungling bureaucracy or, at worst, something that is hostile to the economic interests and political freedom of the citizens. Seen from that perspective one can intuitively understand why the Dutch are more inclined to follow laws they see as benefiting the larger society.

That’s my explanation for the difference; however, I don’t claim to be a social psychologist, and this is certainly not an academic piece of research. I am very interested in hearing what you think on this topic. Send feedback to the address below, and if I receive enough comments, I will post a follow-up.

Paul Raines, CSOonline.com columnist World View columnist Paul Raines is CISO for a non-profit organization based in The Hague, Netherlands.

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Editor’s
Comments:
To add to Paul Raines’ story on Dutch morality, two things:
-          The Dutch may not be as high on the morality ladder as Paul suggests, they may simply have a wrong perception of costs and benefits:
o        The cost may be perceived higher due to the ‘pakkans’ (catch rate) being overestimated – although I tend to think this is not the case;
o        The benefits may get lost as every fare payment itself is not perceived correctly. Thanks to the Dutch strippencard (fare is determined by the number of zones one travels, translates to number of strips to be stamped), most pay well in advance for quite a number of fares in one go – that looks expensive. But when one travels, one has forgotten the initial outlay and at 45 strips to a card, hey just 3 strips must be cheap – that can’t weigh against the (risk of) a fine.
-          Dutch jail times may appear to be (much) lower than e.g. in the USA, but inmates typically effectively serve much more of their time in jail. Unsure about the exact details, but I believe that in the USA, inmates on average serve one third or (much) less of their time whereas in the Netherlands, they serve at least two thirds and may much more often get forced psychological treatment (sometimes lifelong) after jail.
For the rest, of course I’m proud to ‘be’ higher on a moral ladder, especially as people might not expect that from an auditor ;-))
Regards,
Jurgen van der Vlugt