I'm giving the wrong impression here. I don't mean Europeans aren't criminal, I simply observe a strong trust in laws within the Europeans (I mean American, Canadian etc... too) when compare to the Thai people.
In the mind of the Finnish guy Jay he has a piece of paper which gives him a sense of security because he believes the system will protect him. Thai people in my observation don't have this same trust because they know there is a corruption in the officials and the paper is only as good the person willing to enforce it, which may never happen.
I've never gone through the legal system in Thailand but I don't trust it because I see the Thai people themselves don't trust their authorities. That's my only point.
Perhaps what you're both alluding to is that in Western countries, the law is more likely to be applied equally to all parties, regardless of whether they're locals or foreigners.
Clearly, there's often an element of "who you know" but I think that's far more the case in Thailand.