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The triumph of a culture of honor helps to explain why the pattern of criminality in the American South has always been so distinctive.
榮譽文化的勝利解釋了為什么在美國南部犯罪模式一直是如此獨特。
Murder rates are higher there than in the rest of the country. But crimes of property and "stranger" crimes, like muggings, are lower.
為什么謀殺率比美國的其他地區(qū)高？但是在這些地區(qū)，財產犯罪和"陌生人"犯罪--如搶劫案--的比例較低。
As the sociologist John Shelton Reed has written,
正如社會學家約翰·謝爾頓·里德寫的那樣：
"The homicides in which the South seems to specialize are those in which someone is being killed by someone he, or often she, knows, for reasons both the killer and victim understand."
"南方的兇殺案中，幾乎都是被害人（經常是女性）知道兇手是誰，殺手和受害者都知道被殺的原因。"
Reed adds: "the statistics show that the Southerner who can avoid arguments and adultery is as safe as any other American, and probably safer."
里德補充道："統(tǒng)計顯示，南方人常能逃避法律制裁，而通奸和其他任何地方的美國人一樣安全，而且還可能更安全。"
In the backcountry, violence wasn't for economic gain.
在窮鄉(xiāng)僻壤的地方，暴力并非為了經濟利益。
It was personal. You fought for your honor.
它純粹是個人的，是為自己的榮譽打拼。
Many years ago, the southern newspaperman Hodding Carter told their story of how as a young man he served on a jury.
許多年前，南方的一位新間記者赫丁·卡特講述了他年輕時擔任陪審團的往事。
As Reed describes it: The case before the jury involved an irascible gentleman who lived next door to a filling station.
正如里德描述的那樣："陪審團面對的案件嫌疑人是一位住在汽車加油站附近的、脾氣暴躁的男士。
For several months he had been a butt of various jokes played by the attendants and the miscellaneous loafers who hung around the station, despite his warnings in his notorious short temper.
幾個月來，他成為服務員和車站旁各色人等的笑柄。盡管他警告過這些人。這些人也了解他臭名昭著的急脾氣。
One morning, he emptied both barrels of his shotgun at his tormenters, killing one, maiming another permanently, and wounding a third....
一天早晨，他用獵槍打死一人，打傷兩人，其中一人終身殘疾。
When the jury was polled by the incredulous judge, Cater was the only jury who recorded his vote as guilty.
陪審團由不輕易相信別人的法官投票選出，卡特成為認為被告有罪的唯一陪審員。
As one of the others put it, "he wouldn't have been much of a man if he hadn't shot them fellows."
正如別人所說的那樣"如果他沒有開槍打死這些人，他也不至于落到如此田地。"
Only in a culture of honor would it have occurred to the irascible gentleman that shooting someone wasn't an appropriate response to a personal insult.
只有在榮譽文化的背景下，這種情況才會發(fā)生：為了維護個人尊嚴不受侮辱，脾氣暴躁的男士用槍射擊別人；
And only in a culture of honor would it have occured to a jury that murder, under those circumstances, was not a crime
也只有在文化榮譽下，陪審團才會認為謀殺--在這種情況下--不是一種罪行。
