Education- Isaac Frasier blames his upbringing and education (or lack thereof) on his criminal history, combined with his “thievish nature”. John Jubeart, however, seems to have been well brought up, by parents who “were honest industrious people and gave him as genteel an education as their circumstances would allow” (163). John’s fall into crime is pretty bizarre, actually: he becomes upset by the death of his mother, wanders around, gives his children all his money and becomes so poor that he counterfeits money. So unlike Isaac Frasier, who blames nature and conditioning, Jubeart blames circumstance
Poverty- In a state of self-induced poverty (having settled his estate upon his children), Jubeart mines some silver and makes money out it. “His simplicity, and being badly paid for his work, had reduced him so low that he was greatly in want of linen and several other necessities” (164).
Experiment- In these two pages, we have seen perhaps the three biggest reasons attributed to crime: the first being that is in the criminal’s nature or upbringing, the second that extenuating circumstances drove him or her to commit the crime, and perhaps the third being simple curiosity. Jubeart says that when he counterfeited the money out of silver, rather than “any fraudulent intention to impose upon the public,” that “it was more for the sake of trying an experiment” (164).