@malnormalulo @cheetah_spottycat we tend to use it as a permanent and unalterable defining feature rather than a result of some action. A person who goes to school is a student, until they leave school, someone is a swimmer until they leave the water. Why should committing a criminal act leave a permanent mark?

If that is the case, aren't we all "criminals" ? Have any of us never parked illegally? Cut across a vacant lot? Briefly crossed a double yellow? Worn white after labor day?

@malnormalulo @cheetah_spottycat i would say that the reason why so many people think of "criminals" this way is because we as a society still treat "crime" as an individual moral failing, and anyone who commits one must therefore be some degree of evil, which in turn makes it easy to dehumanize them

this kind of thinking becomes much harder to justify if we would instead think of crime as a symptom of underlying socioeconomic problems (and which cannot be solved by throwing people into prison)