Transgression taxes

I saw this expression somewhere recently and it just such a great description of the way that fines and penalties for misbehaviours are so enthusiastically enforced by national and local government. These trangression taxes are easy to collect if middle-class, law-abiding peope are the transgressors and that is why it is them rather than the violent or dangerous that are targetted. A "street warden" will be more likely to issue a fine to a 50 year-old householder whose bin is overfull because they had a party or who has managed to include a piece of plastic wrapping in the paper recycling bin, that he/she would be to try and fine six youths who are throwing empty beer cans at a bin on the High Street and missing. The householder is easier to identify, more likely to pay and much less likely to give the "street warden" a good kicking.

A side benefit of fining the law-abiding for minor trangressions is that it keeps them cowed and not inclined to protest in case they transgress some other law and end up in the Police Station. The consequences for a middle-class "criminal" are serious whilst for the aforementioned youths, it is just "an occupational liability".