In the original Star Trek series there was an episode where the theme was that sometimes in life you just have to break the cycle. Examples could include if someone has grown up with abusive parents, if they become a parent themselves, it would be second nature to become an abusive parent, but they could resolve not to do so. Similarly, if someone has grown up in a family of criminals, they could resolve not to become a criminal. It would be a bit more difficult to do so having grown up with the wrong values.
