What I see is that the lower 48 has taken on a 'soft' approach to crime and criminals. They make excuses and spout sympathy and that makes the 'risk' of criminal acts less unappealing than the 'reward' that might be gained.
Alaskans are actually in a bit of an uproar because of SB91 being passed in July 2016 (and the surge of crime in Anchorage) the bill lessens sentences and punishments for crime -
Senate Bill 91: Summary of Policy Reforms | | University of Alaska Anchorage
If you look at any crime local news piece from Anchorage over the past two years, you'll find a lot of bitching about SB91 in the comments every time. Alaskan's are not happy at all - why they re-elected Dem's again is ******* beyond me. (I almost think there was some kind of fraud going on in the local elections, I was stunned considering the very vocal and very persistent outrage of like every Alaskan I know against their supporting and pushing SB91. I'm kind of hoping President Trump looking into the election will give us Alaskan's the standing we need to push for an investigation into our local elections.)
Anyway, there's been a surge in blatant violence since it's passage, hell less than a week ago, broad daylight 3 black men held up 3 separate women at gun point. One of them even had a gun in her purse but she'd been in her car at a stop sign and couldn't access it before they had a gun to her head. They caught one of the assholes and this guy is going to have a lesser sentence, 3-5 years instead of 5-8 years, as a direct result of SB91.
Criminals are stupid, but they are bright enough to recognize "opportunity" to example, lesser repercussions, less local support for police, ineffective police forces, or in Alaska's case smaller police force, etc. They use that to their advantage and when they pick their victims/targets. People need to understand that criminals will take any advantage you give them; they are give an inch take a mile types of people. That is the real "cultural" problem that America has, used to be only in the lower 48, but it's creeping in up here too.