If you aren't a motivated person, with at least a modicum of get up and go, than you probably aren't going to be a very good employee and almost for a certainty not make for a successful criminal. If all you ever want to do is forever punch keys and interact with your smart phone all day, or just vegetate in a corner of your living room, you probably aren't going to be a real threat to society, then again, you aren't going to be a benefit to society, as you will almost for a certainty be a burden to society. The motivational factors that operate within any given individual makes a significant difference as to how they are going to perform and what they will perform on a given day. The problem that today's stratified and segmented society has, is that at a very early age, there is a seismic gap between those that are nurtured, loved, cared for, and attend good schools, as opposed to those that come from substandard housing, an overburdened household, and schools which don’t care, don't teach, and don't demand much of anything from their students.
Yet, inside most people, there is an urge to be something, to do something, to be about something, and when you are located in an area of a city in which the door of opportunity is shuttered closed, or essentially non-functioning, or simply labeled as "dead end", than you will find as an individual, that your choices are severely limited. This means for a sizable portion of our impoverished elements of society, which has little hope for any meaningful change, that they will in the normal course of things, begin to turn, or have turned to activities that are considered by society to be crimes, whether that be illicit drug dealing, prostitution, con games, and the like. America's avowed solution to these given problems is to arrest, convict, and then to lock up these criminals, which per the letter of the law, seems correct, but to the spirit of the law, is not.
Millions of people go to work each day, for the primary reason that they need to earn money so as to pay bills and so as to purchase essential goods and services. While that is a good thing, if you don't have ready access to money, nor capital, nor to meaningful legitimate jobs, this doesn't somehow mean that you no longer have a need to pay bills, or to purchase essential goods and services, because, in fact, you still do, the fundamental difference is that you don't have a steady job which will allow you to. Not too surprisingly, where there is a will, there is a way, and while some people will see crime and criminal activities as an unmitigated evil, that viewpoint is both rather simplistic and often comes directly from the prism of their own peculiar viewpoint, which allows them the luxury of thinking so.
The fact is, while crime in general is an undesirable activity, the motivations that create some crime, such as preplanning, preparation, desire, persistence, courage, risk taking, need, and so forth, are often the same attributes that are necessary tools to be successful in the regular workforce. What so many people that turn to crime are lacking are the foundational skills of not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also a firm moral code, along with a fair opportunity. While there isn't much one can do for an apathetic criminal, there is certainly hope for a motivated criminal, so that with proper leadership and direction, time and persistence, the criminal element in the man can under the right circumstances be redirected into being a positive contributing member of society at large.