A lot of people have this mistaken idea of the Amish as living simple, happy lives. The reality is that a lot of them live in quiet desperation and fear, misery that they can't do anything about because to challenge the church on any point brings expulsion. Pressure to conform is huge, and the penalties for not doing so are real.

Sucide, murder, drug use and incest are all to regular problems among the Amish, but their same seperation from the rest of the world keeps those problem secret.

I've always wondered just what the relative percents where for crime among the Amish, but there are simply no meaningful statistics.

Jay