If you ask a criminologist, the answer is a combination of all three, depending on the person. Moral people do right thing, which may or may not be what is legal (not all laws have to do with morals). Some moral people will obey the law, just because it is the law.C-dub wrote:For the law abiding person, is it the law, their morals, or the consequences that prevents them from committing a crime? Or a combination of two or more of these?
For people who are less strict in their moral reasoning, there are some who believe in obeying the law. They do not tie morals and law together. A lot of politicians fall into this group, as can be seen when they are caught in unethical situations. Their first defense is "I did not break the law." This is also true, so there are definitely some people who obey the law simply because it is the law, not tied to their morals in any way.
And then there are the group of people who obey the law out of fear of punishment. They may or may not be moral, and they may or may not respect the law. But they are not willing to pay the consequences so they obey the law. This category is best shown by looking at traffic laws. Most traffic laws are not related to morals. Many people obey traffic laws because they are moral and believe in obeying the law as a moral thing. Many people obey the law simply because it is the law. And some drivers obey the law simply because they cannot afford any more tickets, or in other words, because they fear the consequences of breaking the law.