I agree, but that seems to be how the idea is actually used in real life. By people other than you. By people who get paid when they catch criminals… which creates an incentive for them to increase easy-to-solve criminality rather then reduce it, as long as they find plausibly deniable methods to do it.
In theory, if you could create “traps” in a way that does not increase temptation (because increased temptation = increased crime), for example on a street already containing hundred unlocked bikes you would add dozen unlocked trap bikes… yeah, there is probably no downside to that.
In practice, if you allow this, and if you start rewarding people for catching thieves using the traps, they will get creative. Because a trap that follows the spirit of the law does not maximize the reward.
I agree, but that seems to be how the idea is actually used in real life. By people other than you. By people who get paid when they catch criminals… which creates an incentive for them to increase easy-to-solve criminality rather then reduce it, as long as they find plausibly deniable methods to do it.
In theory, if you could create “traps” in a way that does not increase temptation (because increased temptation = increased crime), for example on a street already containing hundred unlocked bikes you would add dozen unlocked trap bikes… yeah, there is probably no downside to that.
In practice, if you allow this, and if you start rewarding people for catching thieves using the traps, they will get creative. Because a trap that follows the spirit of the law does not maximize the reward.