Causes of Crime Flashcards
INTRO
The Oxford Dictionary defines a crime as an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. A crime is a fact, a matter of law and it is not an opinion. Criminologists seek to explain the reasons why people commit crime. The recording of crime remains at one of the lowest levels seen since 1974. The total number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland in 2019-20 was 246,516. This is 36 crimes (or less than 1%) higher than the level recorded in 2018-19. There are many factors and theories which criminologists argue cause a person to commit a crime. This essay will analyse different factors including poverty, greed and peer pressure and will look at different sociological and biological theories in order to try and understand what causes crime. Ultimately this essay will show that there is not one clear cut cause of crime and actually there are many causes which may depend on the person and their circumstances.
1P
Poverty can be argued to be a cause of crime
1E
Society attaches a lot of importance to material things such as having the right phone, the right house, clothes and lifestyle. For those who cannot afford these things as well as the basics to survive in life they may turn to crimes to provide what they can’t afford
1E
For example, crimes of dishonesty accounted for 46% of all recorded crime in 2018-19. Shoplifting accounted for over a quarter (29%) of crimes of dishonesty.
1A
This may be from people who are very poor and have little other option to survive considering 1 in 5 people in Scotland live in relative poverty.
1R
Poverty can be linked to the theory of Marxism.
1E
Marxist writers see crime as the inevitable result of a capitalist society, which they claim is based on exploitation, competition and alienation. Marxist writers also argue that different social classes are policed differently, with the working class heavily policed in the expectation that they will be more criminal, therefore raising the chances of their crimes being detected. This criminalises the poor for actions that the middle classes also engage in.
1E
For example a college student with no criminal record was jailed for six months for stealing a £3.50 case of bottled water during the 2011 London riots while an Oxford University Student was spared jail after stabbing her boyfriend due to being an “extraordinarily able young lady”, whose talents meant that a prison sentence would be “too severe”.
1A
This suggests that those living in poverty are policed differently which is why their actions may be deemed “criminal”.
1L
Nevertheless, while it is clear that some people living in poverty may have no other option than to commit crime to survive, it does not explain why the majority of people living in crime are in fact law abiding citizens which suggests that there are many factors which cause a person to commit a crime.
2P
Peer pressure can be argued to be a cause of crime.
2E
This is when individuals feel forced to commit a crime by their friends and feel under pressure to say yes.
2E
For example, a study by Roken et al. (2017) found there is a close link between lifestyle and crime involvement. People who often spend time with friends involved in crime may unintentionally place themselves in situations where the risk of victimisation and offending is particularly high.
2A
This suggests that attracting and keeping friends is not always easy so this is why they may commit a crime so that they are seen to “belong” or “impress”.
2R
Peer pressure can be linked to the strain theory developed by Robert
K. Merton.
2E
Merton believed that deviance and crime resulted from the culture and structure of society itself. In modern, capitalist democracies it is believed everyone has an equal opportunity of achieving success and there are socially accepted rules for achieving success.
2E
For example, a study by Brown, Esbensen, & Geis (2013) suggests that “strain may occur when an individual perceives the reward to be inadequate relative to the effort”. This thought process helps give an overall view of strain and why people who are “stressed out” from their environment might turn to deviance to accomplish what they want.
2A
This therefore suggests that those who can’t achieve success by legitimate means are placed under strain and more likely to resort to criminal or deviant behaviour to achieve that success.
2L
Although all adolescents may experience peer pressure, not all of them may succumb to negative peer pressure. This is due to the fact that backgrounds such as the family, social, academic and neighbourhood or environmental, as well as other influences may differ, which suggests that there are numerous other factors which can lead a person onto committing a crime.
3P
There are some people who argue that the cause of crime is rooted within the individual.
3E
Biological theories of crime attempt to explain that criminal behaviour and violence is down to an individual’s genetic characteristics and that this behaviour is largely beyond an individual’s control. Essentially this suggests that it is in some people’s nature to be criminal or violent.
Biological sex could be argued as being a cause of crime. The discrepancy between men and women committing crime may be largely driven by biological differences in natural strength and the tendency to use violence between men and women.
3E
Men have higher levels of testosterone than women which often make them historically more aggressive and prone to higher risk taking. For example, in Scotland, in 2020, around 95% of prisoners in a Scottish prison are male compared to 5% who are female.
3A
This suggests that this aggression or risk taking could make them more likely to take part in violent crimes.
3R
Another biological cause of crime could be mental disorder.
3E
Someone with the mental disorder of psychopathy are people who may seem like most of society but in fact often lack remorse or feel little empathy for others. This means they are less likely to feel guilt or regret for committing crimes so may be more likely to do so.
3E
For example, Stephen Griffiths was known as the “Crossbow Cannibal” who had been diagnosed with psychopathy decades before he killed, dismembered and ate 3 women in England.
3A
This suggests that mental illness can predict criminal behaviour. Although a subset of people with mental disorders commit assaults and violent crimes, findings have been inconsistent about how much mental illness contributes to this behaviour and how much substance abuse and other factors do.
3L
Crime is probably the result of a combination of factors including social, political, economic and geographic so to single it out on biological explanations alone is not enough to explain the causes of all crime. This suggests that other factors are at play, and they can all influence a person to commit a crime.
CONC
Overall it is evident that there are in fact many causes of crime.
Often factors can explain why a small amount of people may commit a crime such as mental disorder, causing someone to commit a crime as they do not have empathy or understanding of another person’s feelings. However, the correlation between poor mental health and offending does not prove conclusively that mental disorder cause crimes. As with other factors relating to crime, mental disorder is just one in a long list of inter-related
“risk factors” which might also include poverty, problems at school, social exclusion and unemployment. The vast majority of those suffering from mental illness are not criminals. There is a relationship between mental health and crime, but it is far more complex than first meets the eve: mental illness remains just one of many factors involved in crime. Therefore there are clearly many causes of crime.
