When people abandon morality (control from within), there's nothing left but a police state (control from without). That's why it's laughable that some people think religion is just fluff and sentiment. Without a solidly grounded system of morality, there is nothing left but chaos. Morality grounded on "be nice" doesn't go very far.
On another note: Once again the error that poverty is criminal almost by nature. You're poor, so then you're automatically criminal. These people aren't criminal because they're poor. Every poor saint in history disproves that. These people are criminal because they have one law, and no room for any other: themselves.
It's weird how people today seem to take it for granted that being poor means you're more likely to do crimes. As though the rich are saints? Being poor has got nothing to do with it, except that oftentimes soft, sinful and selfish lives lead to poverty. The "easy way" (crime rather than work, maybe dropping out of school, etc... ) just happens to coincide with ending up broke. But not all who end up broke got there because they're druggies and criminals.