Lesson: Crime doesn't pay. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are decidedly charming as the young Depression-era anti-heroes of the crime film "Bonnie and Clyde." At least they are until they start slaughtering people right and left. Then things start to get ugly and serious and scary -- sort of like what's going on with our banking system.

There certainly is anger and outrage over multibillion-dollar bailouts, risky mortgage practices and how the credit rug has been pulled out from under consumers and businesses. (See "The banks have declared war -- on you.") But people aren't taking the Bonnie and Clyde route for revenge.

Bank robberies and thefts, in fact, have decreased from 7,272 in 2006 to 6,182 in 2007 to 6,105 in 2008, the FBI says. And the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that violent crime, property crime and firearm-related crime have steadily declined since 1993 (except for an uptick in firearm-related crime in 2005). What's gone up: felony convictions and the percentage of crimes reported to police.

Still not convinced that crime doesn't pay? Keep in mind that, according to FBI crime statistics, of the 19 people who died during the commission of a bank robbery in 2008, 16 were the perpetrators.

Continued: "Breakfast at Tiffany's"