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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think criminals are very common?

237 replies

ChicJoker · 22/09/2025 17:35

I see lots of threads on here claiming moral high ground and pearl clutching for example about people not correcting large company’s on a billing mistake. All very tsk tsk tsk “that’s stealing” etc.

it got me thinking, I’m sure it’s dependent on your region but I don’t believe there’s a single person where I’m from that doesn’t either know or have a relation to a criminal in some way. If mums net was a true representation of the public, surely criminals would be shunned from communities and the holier than thou would reign free.

where I’m from, everybody, and I do mean everybody - either knows someone directly or are themselves involved in illegal activity in some way. Even if it was historically. It’s astoundingly common. Anyone who claims otherwise is either lying or incredibly naive.

what are your thoughts? How do the whiter than white cope in life? FWIW there’s absolutely not a chance on this earth I’d correct for example Tesco on sending me a free online shop by mistake. I’d actually find it more morally inferior TO correct them.

OP posts:
MusicalCarbuncle · 22/09/2025 22:14

more than 1/5 of people of working age have a nominal record with the police: ie, a conviction, caution or arrest.

And that is just the ones who got picked up.

MasterBeth · 22/09/2025 22:12

dancingqueen345 · 22/09/2025 22:08

Where I’m from, very common, and I’d agree that everyone I know, knows a ‘criminal’, including me. It’s not a deprived area (although there are pockets of it), it’s considered an affluent place to live. Also baffles me when I read some posts on here.

Why does it baffle you that some people live a different kind of life to you?

This inability to believe that lots of us don't mix with known criminals is what I would consider a sheltered life.

TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater · 22/09/2025 22:11

OonaStubbs · 22/09/2025 22:10

Criminals are stupid, that's why they have to resort to crime.

According to this thread I am a criminal. I didnt choose to get arrested etc. It was bloody traumatising.

RozGruber · 22/09/2025 22:11

Notmymarmosets · 22/09/2025 18:08

One third of British men have a criminal record.
So if you know three men.....

That’s not how statistics work.

OonaStubbs · 22/09/2025 22:10

Criminals are stupid, that's why they have to resort to crime.

dancingqueen345 · 22/09/2025 22:08

Where I’m from, very common, and I’d agree that everyone I know, knows a ‘criminal’, including me. It’s not a deprived area (although there are pockets of it), it’s considered an affluent place to live. Also baffles me when I read some posts on here.

MusicalCarbuncle · 22/09/2025 22:07

@ChicJoker i think if you carried out a random sample (with proper stratification) and got guaranteed full and frank disclosure, then you’re probably not wrong.
Especially if you have a wide interpretation of “crime”.
in particular, in my 20 years of home ownership I have only met one tradesperson who would not accept cash and insisted on providing invoices and even getting me to sign them off…

(edited to add, I realise cash is not a crime, but these guys I do know, and when I look at their supposed turnover and assets/liabilities - it is a complete and pretty audacious fabrication).

So many people commit supposedly petty crime - drug taking/ dealing/supply, smuggling smallish quantities of booze and fags over the channel “for personal use”, I know a couple who are running their vehicles on that agricultural fuel, under-declaring income by tens of thousands…. they isn’t even including the local petty parcel thieves, the casual criminal damage caused by those tools spraying a cross on every mini roundabout …

Fleetheart · 22/09/2025 22:06

ChicJoker · 22/09/2025 17:35

I see lots of threads on here claiming moral high ground and pearl clutching for example about people not correcting large company’s on a billing mistake. All very tsk tsk tsk “that’s stealing” etc.

it got me thinking, I’m sure it’s dependent on your region but I don’t believe there’s a single person where I’m from that doesn’t either know or have a relation to a criminal in some way. If mums net was a true representation of the public, surely criminals would be shunned from communities and the holier than thou would reign free.

where I’m from, everybody, and I do mean everybody - either knows someone directly or are themselves involved in illegal activity in some way. Even if it was historically. It’s astoundingly common. Anyone who claims otherwise is either lying or incredibly naive.

what are your thoughts? How do the whiter than white cope in life? FWIW there’s absolutely not a chance on this earth I’d correct for example Tesco on sending me a free online shop by mistake. I’d actually find it more morally inferior TO correct them.

Do you live in Liverpool?

MasterBeth · 22/09/2025 22:05

Maybe just tell us.

TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater · 22/09/2025 22:04

MasterBeth · 22/09/2025 22:03

A victimless non-hate crime? Hmm. Not buying it.

Not asking you to but maybe use your imagination a little.

Snugglemonkey · 22/09/2025 22:03

grumpygrape · 22/09/2025 21:13

Someone who has committed or been convicted of a crime.

That is an awful lot of people.

MasterBeth · 22/09/2025 22:03

A victimless non-hate crime? Hmm. Not buying it.

nobodysdaughter · 22/09/2025 22:01

I totally get where you’re coming from, a lot of posters on here are shockingly naïve.

TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater · 22/09/2025 22:01

MasterBeth · 22/09/2025 21:59

Yeah, you accidentally commit one tiny hate crime and suddenly you're a criminal!

It wasn't for a hate crime in my case, but there was no victims with what I did and I am still classed as a criminal according to this thread and the law I guess. Like I said I have stuff on my DBS that will never be filtered off.

Indicateyourintentions · 22/09/2025 22:01

Stephen Fry went to jail as a young man for credit card fraud and he’s terribly common.

MasterBeth · 22/09/2025 21:59

Chiseltip · 22/09/2025 21:56

It's true, sort of.

Quite a lot of things count as criminal offences, which quite a lot of people wouldn't think should necessarily be criminal offences. Tax issues, shoplifting, cautions for doing "stupid" stuff . . . .

Did you know that checking someone's phone without their consent was a criminal offence?

Look up the rules around "hate crime", it will make you think you've stepped into some parallel universe.

It's very easy to commit a criminal offence. And men are more likely to step across the threshold than women are.

Yeah, you accidentally commit one tiny hate crime and suddenly you're a criminal!

Fearfulsaints · 22/09/2025 21:57

MasterBeth · 22/09/2025 21:51

Do you have memory issues?

Or maybe you remember reading it halfway through this thread...

😂

Chiseltip · 22/09/2025 21:56

Evaka · 22/09/2025 18:10

One third of men have a criminal record. WHAT???

It's true, sort of.

Quite a lot of things count as criminal offences, which quite a lot of people wouldn't think should necessarily be criminal offences. Tax issues, shoplifting, cautions for doing "stupid" stuff . . . .

Did you know that checking someone's phone without their consent was a criminal offence?

Look up the rules around "hate crime", it will make you think you've stepped into some parallel universe.

It's very easy to commit a criminal offence. And men are more likely to step across the threshold than women are.

MasterBeth · 22/09/2025 21:51

Fearfulsaints · 22/09/2025 21:44

I remember reading something that a third of men had some sort of conviction. I dont know if its true, but thats just people caught.

Do you have memory issues?

Or maybe you remember reading it halfway through this thread...

Melancholyflower · 22/09/2025 21:49

JackRobinson · 22/09/2025 21:10

I'm interested by all these people who are adamant they don't know any criminals. I'm confident that nobody I know would think of me as a "criminal" - I'm well educated, well spoken, middle class, in a respectable profession that requires a DBS check... but over the course of my teens I probably shoplifted a couple thousand pounds worth of stuff. Then at uni I had a little stealing to order business. I've also done a little trespassing and distributed some drugs for a friend. It's long since behind me now, but it's only by luck that I didn't get caught and can now work in the field I work in. My friends would be absolutely horrified if they knew my past.

But surely you don't think there are lots of people like you? Most people would never have considered shoplifting as a teen, never mind having a steal to order business.

Fearfulsaints · 22/09/2025 21:44

I remember reading something that a third of men had some sort of conviction. I dont know if its true, but thats just people caught.

grumpygrape · 22/09/2025 21:44

ChicJoker · 22/09/2025 21:24

What’s yours?

My post 21:13

BrickBiscuit · 22/09/2025 21:43

TheBucketWomen · 22/09/2025 21:40

I agree. Criminals are so very common!

Quick, Bucket, you’re needed on another thread. Some workman’s poo wouldn’t go down, and people are talking nonsense about sticks, knives and bleach.

grumpygrape · 22/09/2025 21:42

notnorman · 22/09/2025 21:25

How can you possibly know?

Know what?

Gagaandgag · 22/09/2025 21:41

What type of criminal? I don’t think I know anyone unless they don’t tell me

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