Nailed it in one.

And yes, communities have functioned like that in their own way [see: The Scarlet Letter]

As soon as you have a purity imperative, you get eagle-eyed old busybodies who firkin DELIGHT in the downfall of others. Schadenfreude is a gateway drug to pure evil in those people.

True story: My maternal grandmother walked out on the rest of the family and the resident gossips were salivating over the opportunity and potential for MeMum to subsequently fall into disrepute. Years after the fact, anticipating my arrival into the human race, Mum met up with one of those old hags gossips who then asked how long she'd been married.

The answer, "Two years," was met with disappointment and frustration.