CRIME.
A call woke John up from sleep. His brother had been imprisoned for rape. The sleep disappeared immediately from his eyes and he wondered how and why it had happened.
Ella, who is an orphan told Queen how she found herself in prostitution since no one was willing to assist her without having an affair with her, she smiled and said “don’t judge me Queen, you’re not in that situation”.
Kings college principal was in the assembly as early as 8am, he was angry and he called out the names of 5 student in JSS3 and he expelled them for stealing and fighting in the school premises.
The world would call a person a thief for stealing 10 naira biscuit in the market today and also call a person who steals over 10 million a thief.
A thief is a thief, no matter what was stolen. What matters is the act which is the crime.
Crime is a social problem that happens everywhere and it happens daily.
Thesaurus dictionary define Crime as any offense, serious wrongdoing, or sin and it could be a foolish, senseless, or shameful act. Lastly, it’s an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally prohibited.
Punishments traditionally reflect the seriousness of the crime, the most serious are those which involve violence and/or loss of life.
The causes of crime are complex. Poverty, parental neglect, low self-esteem, alcohol and drug abuse can be connected to why people break the law. Some are at greater risk of becoming offenders because of the circumstances into which they are born.
Aristotle said ‘Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime’.
We find crime everywhere around us, we found people committing crime
“Some people steal to stay alive, and some steal to feel alive”. Simple as that.V.E. Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic)
Why people commit crime.
People commit crime because of greed, anger, jealously,envy, revenge, or pride.
Types of Crime
Crimes Against Persons: Crimes against persons also called personal crimes, include; murder, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery.
Crimes Against Property:Property crimes involve the theft of property without bodily harm such as burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson. Like personal crimes, young, urban, poor, and racial minorities are arrested for these crimes more than others.
Hate Crimes:Hate crimes are crimes against persons or property that are committed while invoking prejudices of race, gender or gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
Crimes Against Morality:Crimes against morality are also called victimless crimes because there is no complainant or victim.
Individualist and collectivist approach to crime. (BBC Bitesize)
Individualists tend to focus on personal weakness as the reason a crime is committed. If someone chooses to offend, that is their responsibility and if caught, they should suffer the consequences. Individualists believe that if punishments were stronger and the police and courts had more powers, there would be less crime.
Collectivists feel that society is unequal and some people are at greater risk of being influenced by criminal behaviour, often through the actions of parents or friends.
In order to tackle crime, collectivists feel that social conditions which create the catalyst for crime need to be addressed. This could be through better housing, improved employment opportunities and a more equal society to make crime less of an attraction. If people are in work and are content with life they will be less likely to break the law.
How crime can be reduced.
If we want to reduce crime, it should start from the family. We need to know that anything that affects the family can affect the members. We need to discipline ourself for the truth and always correct our young ones . If poverty is reduced and there’s job opportunities, skills, education support and social support, then crime would be reduced.
Strategies suggested by criminologists to reduce crime
1. Reducing poverty and improving neighborhood living conditions,
2.Changing male socialization patterns,
3.Expanding early childhood intervention programs,
4.Improving schools and schooling
5.Reducing the use of incarceration for drug and property offenders.
In conclusion
Crime is a social problem that we all need to show more concerns, because of our safety. It must be solved and reduced but it all start with us.I actually would agree with the collective approach to crime.Because if people are in work and content with life,it would be a a bit difficult to commit crime. Most people commit crime because they are not contented with their life,they are not happy with their present life,. For example Abraham maslow’s hierarchy of needs states lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up. A person who has master degree in his/her course of study would feel he/she is better than a SSCE or even a bachelor degree holder but his/her self esteem would be reduced when he/she does not have a job. He/she could go into committing crime because of lack of job opportunities. A person who has a masters degree won’t be able to feed him or herself. We all should be content with life but we should desire to be more better because we can be the best version of ourselves without committing crime.
References.
Crossman, Ashley. “7 Different Types of Crimes.” ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/types-of-crimes-3026270.
Barlow, H. D., & Decker, S. H. (Eds.). (2010). Criminology and public policy: Putting theory to work. Philadelphia, PA: Temple Univeristy Press.
V.E. Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic.