The motive behind many crimes committed locally doesn't always flow from some deep, dark malevolent place in which perpetrators are bent on world domination or harming their neighbors and community.

Rather, some suspects brought before Sweet Home Municipal Court are there simply because they made poor choices that affected the course of their lives, prompting antisocial and illegal behavior.

For some, their crimes may even be the result of a mental health problem or even a matter of survival, like the protaganist in the story "Les Miserables," Jean Valjean, who served a prison sentence i...