[from]

> If you want to reduce crime, ask the government to do one of its other jobs: Provide a stable foundation for every member of the country, so that they don't have to fear being left destitute if they can't get someone richer to agree to support them (in exchange for labor).

This is may be true in the case of things like street level drug sales but most of these scams are perpetuated by people in other countries using bank accounts ("drops") set up with stolen American identities. America can't really influence social policy in Nigeria or India or Russia on the scale you are talking about. The scammers only need one success every couple months to make the average salary in their country and the smarter ones are making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[pencilguin]

Probably making white-collar, and elected, police and prosecutor corrruption illegal, and prosecuting that, would engender greater respect for the law.