I would suggest that in the absence of “consequences or rules”, an internal sense of honesty and decency would keep people on the straight and narrow.

See also Peelian principles , aka policing by consent.

The Peelian principles describe the philosophy that Sir Robert Peel developed to define an ethical police force. The principles traditionally ascribed to Peel state that:

• Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests, but on the lack of crime

• Above all else, an effective authority figure knows trust and accountability are paramount. Hence, Peel’s most often quoted principle that “The police are the public and the public are the police.”

Do you think that religion, or societal customs, or something else, is what keeps people honest?

Penn Jillette says he gets the “What’s-to-keep-you-from-raping-and-killing” question all the time from religious people. It is a ham-fisted challenge to atheism, and Jillette has no trouble crushing it with rhetorical roundhouses. For example: “My answer is: I do rape all I want,” he told an interviewer. “And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don’t want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don’t want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to…rape you. You know what I mean?”