[BaseballPhysics]

> if petty crimes aren’t enforced even with just small punishments, then more serious crimes accelerate.

For readers who run across this, this is referred to as the Broken window theory:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

And despite the commenter stating it as fact, both here and elsewhere, the idea is very much controversial, and far from proven.

[Fernicia]

You may be misunderstanding his point.

I think he's pointing out that people who commit serious crimes usually have a prior history of smaller, petty crimes that they were not given meaningful punishment for.

The data certainly supports this observation, and I can dig out supporting evidence if it's in doubt (at least in NYC, Dublin, and London. I'm not familiar with SF).

[BaseballPhysics]

> You may be misunderstanding his point.

No, I'm not. He specifically mentioned broken window theory elsewhere.

> The data certainly supports this observation,

There are multiple interpretations of the data, and the Wikipedia page I cited goes through the many possibilities.