When you're on a bicycle at a red light with no car or pedestrian in sight, do you still wait for the green? Do you obey every single law? Surely fearful compliance with every niggling regulation defies the much-vaunted "freedom" that is the premise of democracy. Maybe that’s what drives our fascination with film and fiction criminality: we envy renegades. Is breaking a rule a day better than an apple for your health?

Lionel Shriver's books include the international bestselling We Need to Talk About Kevin as well as Big Brother, New Republic, So Much For That, The Post-Birthday World, Double Fault and Game Control. Her latest book isThe Mandibles (2016). She writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and The Independent. Lionel lives in London and Brooklyn, New York.

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