Saint Augustine of Hippo lived during the fourth century in Roman North Africa. As a young adult, he referred to himself as a “serious sinner.” He died in 430 after four decades as the bishop of Hippo.
A Catholic theologian and philosopher, he influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity.
Augustine’s views on sin, free will, and justice, found in his writings — The City of God and Confessions — had a profound effect on criminology and laws in Western culture. He argued that evil is not an independent force, but the absence of good.
Augustine said that “the function of justice is to assign to each his due.” Another way of saying this is that justice is when those found guilty of crimes get what they deserve.
When justice is served, there is more than one benefit to society. It also serves as a deterrent to other potential criminals.
The American justice system is slipping away from justice to one of acceptance. When society allows criminal activity to continue without justice, we are encouraging it. We are motivating individuals to trade good for evil.
An investigative story from March 2025 in the Chicago Sun-Times found that only 6 percent of shootings in the Windy City led to arrests. Their story found that, “Last year alone, there were 2,300 nonfatal shootings in Chicago. The police made arrests in just 141 of them — a ‘clearance’ rate of about 6 percent.”
No justice in this Democrat run city results in more crime.
Many progressive prosecutors across the country have been called soft on crime for their push to eliminate cash bail and refusal to prosecute shoplifters.
In 2022, newly elected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent a memo to his staff where he said he would not prosecute the following crimes: marijuana possession, turnstile jumping, trespassing, resisting arrest, interfering with an arrest and prostitution.
Maybe he wanted to focus his attention on felony cases.
In 2019, before Bragg’s tenure, 64 percent of felony cases ended in convictions, according to state data reported by the New York Post. In 2022, the conviction rate was down to 40 percent, and in 2024, to 35 percent.
That means two-thirds of Manhattan’s felony cases don’t end in convictions.
Justice is being denied.
Lack of justice can also hit home in small towns of central Missouri, where we all live.
It’s the crime of embezzlement.
We’ve all read and heard stories of individuals entrusted with a volunteer organization’s finances embezzling funds for personal use.
The question is, do they ever spend time behind bars?
In November 2022, an Owensville woman was charged with stealing and forgery from her former employer. She was accused of stealing over $250,000 between 2016 and September 2022, forging 698 checks fraudulently obtained from her employer. That’s an average of $41,666 per year.
The woman in question pleaded guilty in August 2024 as charged. She was sentenced to 7 years in prison, but given probation.
Under Missouri law, theft of over $25,000 is a Class B felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison and/or fines up to $20,000.
As long as she does not break the terms of her probation, she will never serve a day in prison.
Over the past 21 months, she has paid a total of $2,200 in restitution for her crimes. If you took out a $250,000 loan at 6 percent interest over 30 years, your monthly payment would be $1,499.75.
Even with a guilty plea, as in this instance, justice has not been served. And without justice being served, there is little to no deterrent to stop other individuals from attempting and succeeding in embezzling from their employer.
It’s a vicious circle.
Embezzlement by an officer, director, or employee of a federally insured bank is much more serious. If the woman in question had stolen from a bank, she could have received up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.
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Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers and theologians.
