In “Laws may be ineffective if they don’t reflect social norms, Stanford scholar says” author Clifton B. Parker states “norms clash with formal laws, and the result is counterproductive for everyone involved”

Although laws are intended to reduce crime, many times, they unintentionally create more crime. Laws are created to change morals but aren’t always successful. Societal norms clash with these laws when ideas don’t align with each other. “A society in which laws conflict with social norms will be unable to leverage private enforcement and will have less effective laws”

Parker brings up the “Broken windows theory” which states “A law cannot be understood in isolation from the many other laws that affect the same population”. In 1980, when the idea was introduced, it claimed that the “high incidence of serious crimes in inner cities was a result of permissive attitudes toward smaller crimes like graffiti, vandalism, and subway fare evasion”. Parker states that “Badly designed- excessively tight- laws for one type of behavior- small- scale drug crime in inner cities- can make laws against other types of behavior completely ineffective”. The overly strict laws make criminals of too many people.

It is very difficult to change the norms ingrained into people’s minds. These norms often shape behavior and “make our behaviors seem natural.” Since they are self-reinforcing and make people predictable and understand what is expected of them, they are very difficult to change. Before the firefighters burned books in Fahrenheit 451, people were allowed to read and own books. When a law was enforced that books were banned and to be burned, many people wanted to stay to their old ways and ideas. Many people became “criminals” for not conforming to this new law since owning books were a societal norm.