Now even though I'm a self-described libertarian, I'm pretty forthright about the faults in the school. 

For example, a jaundiced, overly zealous econo-libertarian might contend that the crime rate is product of a pretty simple risk x net-benefit calculation by the criminal.  Decrease the reward from crime, increase the cost, or change the risk factor and the crime rate should change accordingly.   Sorta.

But, it's rather unsatisfying to think that whether we engage in bad behavior basically boils down to whether we think we'll get caught.  The real test of a moral code is what you do when you aren't being watched.   And it's clear that there are other, large forces at play than a cold net benefits calculation. 

Hence, one of the classic arguments about libertarianism - it rests on a cultural foundation which isn't necessarily libertarian but is instead somewhat conservative.   A libertarian government which enforces a narrow definition of "what is Right" is arguably predicated upon social conventions that take a broad view on "what is Good".   (In this phraseology, it's often argued that the modern liberal goal is to have Government enforce "what is Good" or at least a certain strain of it... but I digress.)

A few months ago, the good folks at Marginal Revolution discussed a paper which provides damn good experimental evidence about the relative impact of culture on crime when law enforcement is held constant -

Corruption is believed to be a major factor impeding economic development, but the importance of legal enforcement versus cultural norms in controlling corruption is poorly understood. To disentangle these two factors, we exploit a natural experiment, the stationing of thousands of diplomats from around the world in New York City. Diplomatic immunity means there was essentially zero legal enforcement of diplomatic parking violations, allowing us to examine the role of cultural norms alone.

...We find strong persistence in corruption norms: diplomats from high corruption countries (based on existing survey-based indices) have significantly more parking violations, and these differences persist over time.

...During a period of diplomatic parking immunity, the average Kuwaiti diplomat to the United Nations racked up 246 parking violations.  No Swedish diplomat had any parking violations.

Alternate title:  why libertarianism won't work in Africa.  Or the Middle East.   At least not for a while.