The triumph of a culture of honor helps to explain why the pattern of criminality in the American South has always been so distinctive.

荣誉文化的胜利解释了为什么在美国南部犯罪模式一直是如此独特。

Murder rates are higher there than in the rest of the country. But crimes of property and "stranger" crimes, like muggings, are lower.

为什么谋杀率比美国的其他地区高？但是在这些地区，财产犯罪和"陌生人"犯罪--如抢劫案--的比例较低。

As the sociologist John Shelton Reed has written,

正如社会学家约翰·谢尔顿·里德写的那样：

"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."

"南方的凶杀案中，几乎都是被害人（经常是女性）知道凶手是谁，杀手和受害者都知道被杀的原因。"

Reed adds: "the statistics show that the Southerner who can avoid arguments and adultery is as safe as any other American, and probably safer."

里德补充道："统计显示，南方人常能逃避法律制裁，而通奸和其他任何地方的美国人一样安全，而且还可能更安全。"

In the backcountry, violence wasn't for economic gain.

在穷乡僻壤的地方，暴力并非为了经济利益。

It was personal. You fought for your honor.

它纯粹是个人的，是为自己的荣誉打拼。

Many years ago, the southern newspaperman Hodding Carter told their story of how as a young man he served on a jury.

许多年前，南方的一位新间记者赫丁·卡特讲述了他年轻时担任陪审团的往事。

As Reed describes it: The case before the jury involved an irascible gentleman who lived next door to a filling station.

正如里德描述的那样："陪审团面对的案件嫌疑人是一位住在汽车加油站附近的、脾气暴躁的男士。

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.

几个月来，他成为服务员和车站旁各色人等的笑柄。尽管他警告过这些人。这些人也了解他臭名昭着的急脾气。

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，他用猎枪打死一人，打伤两人，其中一人终身残疾。

When the jury was polled by the incredulous judge, Cater was the only jury who recorded his vote as guilty.

陪审团由不轻易相信别人的法官投票选出，卡特成为认为被告有罪的唯一陪审员。

As one of the others put it, "he wouldn't have been much of a man if he hadn't shot them fellows."

正如别人所说的那样"如果他没有开枪打死这些人，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.

只有在荣誉文化的背景下，这种情况才会发生：为了维护个人尊严不受侮辱，脾气暴躁的男士用枪射击别人；

And only in a culture of honor would it have occured to a jury that murder, under those circumstances, was not a crime

也只有在文化荣誉下，陪审团才会认为谋杀--在这种情况下--不是一种罪行。