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if you can't do the time, don't do the crime

if you can't do the time, don't do the crime proverb: one should not carry out an action if one is unwilling to handle the consequences.

Proverb

if you can't do the time, don't do the crime

  1. One should not carry out an action if one is unwilling to handle the consequences.

Origin of if you can't do the time, don't do the crime

From do time (“to serve a prison sentence”).

Questions about if you can't do the time, don't do the crime

What does if you can't do the time, don't do the crime mean?
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime means one should not carry out an action if one is unwilling to handle the consequences.
What part of speech is if you can't do the time, don't do the crime?
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime is a proverb.

Words near if you can't do the time, don't do the crime in the dictionary

  1. if you build it, they will come
  2. if you can't beat them, eat them
  3. if you can't beat them, join them
  4. if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull
  5. if you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, blind them with bullshit
  6. if you can't do the time, don't do the crime
  7. if you can't lick them, join them
  8. if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen
  9. if you don't ask, you don't get
  10. if you don't mind me saying
  11. if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: if you can't do the time, don't do the crime (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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