https://www.gamespot.com/articles/getting-away-with-crime-in-red-dead-redemption-2-i/1100-6462203/

Red Dead Redemption 2 puts you in the shoes of Arthur Morgan, an outlaw cowboy on the run. He's the key member of a gang and, as all outlaw gangs are wont to do, they commit crimes from time to time. However, given that Rockstar has created a game world that reacts to your behaviour and presents the knock-on effects of your actions to you, getting away with no good is much harder than you'd think.

The people that inhabit Red Dead Redemption 2's wild west are always watching, and while some will turn a blind eye to your misbehaviours, others may feel compelled to do something about what they've seen. This means that if you break the law while people are around, they could narc on you. In our hands-on gameplay session we got a good example of this system in action.