So far as such acts are concerned those who commit them are hardly criminals in the ordinary sense, and no influence in the world is able to prevent them.
The question is how far these different kinds of restraint operate upon the community as a whole in the prevention of deliberate crime.

Clearly the fear of pecuniary loss through actions brought to judgment in the civil courts is practically nil.

Most persons who set out to commit crime have no bank account, the absence of one being generally what leads them into a criminal career.
The writer has no intention of attempting to discuss or estimate the efficacy of religion or ethics as restraining influences.

A certain limited proportion of the community would not commit crime under any circumstances.

It is enough for them that the act is forbidden by the State even if it be not really wrong from their own personal point of view.