2. The Nightmarish Prison System
Before its reformation following the second defeat of Voldemort, wizarding Britain's prison system is basically hell on earth. The wizard prison Azkaban is a colossal triangular tower in the middle of the North Sea that has conditions along the lines of a medieval dungeon. Also, the prisoners (at least the maximum security ones) are chained up and have their serial numbers tattooed onto their bodies. And as well as the fact that Azkaban actually exists, there doesn't seem to be any alternative to it. There's no lesser prison for minor breaches of wizarding law and anything that's too serious to get you a fine will result in you spending time in Azkaban. Even something as minor as impersonating an Inferius (an enchanted corpse) during a robbery will get you imprisoned in this hellhole. But all of that pales in comparison to Azkaban's guards: the Dementors. Wraith-like creatures that feed on love, joy, and every other positive emotion you can think of. The presence of the Dementors at Azkaban saps the will to live of the prisoners until, in many cases, they simply give up trying to stay alive and just waste away. And that's if they haven't gone insane long before that. And as a final kicker, if you somehow manage to escape from Azkaban, rather than you just being imprisoned again and having your sentence extended upon recapture, the authorities will decide to stop messing and around and just let the Dementors suck out your soul. While all of that would undoubtedly scare people straight and keep crime rates down, it would probably make people too scared to do anything at all in case they get sent to Azkaban.