Crime has little impact on wider society. Discuss (20 marks)

Question 1

introduction

Answer 1

Crime can impact wider society in many ways. This is demonstrated through the impact that crime has on communities, businesses and taxpayers. This essay will analyse and evaluate the impact of crime on wider society.

Question 1

COMMUNITIES
SOCIAL IMPACT

Answer 1

• In urban areas blighted with poverty there tends to be high levels of crime
• High levels of crime may damage community spirit, results in less neighbourliness and greater hostility, therefore causes a strong sense of fear within a community
• For example, as a parent you may feel hesitant and fearful about letting your child play outside in a garden, park or street due to high levels of crime in your community
• statistically, people in most deprived areas are more likely to be victims of a crime, people in these areas being 2.5 times more likely to be burgled or mugged

Question 1

COMMUNITIES
ECONOMICAL IMPACT

Answer 1

• Crimes such as drug dealing and violence significantly impact certain areas, mainly those riddled with poverty
• Once high crime rate area is labelled as bad area, can become severely stereotyped due to its tarnished reputation, implies to society that these areas are bleak and grim. However, sometimes parts of these areas are actually ‘normal’, shows how crime can destroy the reputation of a community
• all result in depopulation which causes derelict housing; further adding to the areas issues
• For example, Ferguslie Park in Paisley which frequently sits high on the SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation), has severe stereotyping which resulted in several negative effects on the housing market
• Due to the area’s high crime levels, not appealing to potential homeowners and investors,caused declined property values and lack of private investment in housing

Question 2

COMMUNITIES
PHYSICAL IMPACT

Answer 2

• High crime rates in area can contribute to environmental poverty, where physical environment of high crime rate areas tends to be run down
• For example, areas such as Ferguslie Park and Springburn tend to have lots of graffiti, damaged playparks and burnt-out cars, can all feed into a cycle of crime as people can become demotivated by their physical environment in areas like this and commit crimes as there is nothing else for them to do
• links to the ‘broken windows theory’ which demonstrates how cycle of crime can be an issue for individuals, signifies how crime can physically impact communities as shows how vandalism and physical damage can continually make things worse by allowing a cycle of crime

Question 3

BUSINESSES

Answer 3

• In UK, crimes such as shoplifting and fraud cost businesses billions of pounds each year
• For example, one in twenty shops suffer shoplifting each year, which will place a financial burden on these businesses, evidential through statistics from 2023 which show that the cost of business crime in Scotland was over £3 billion
• To try and prevent crimes such as shoplifting, shops install CCTV and security guards, this costs millions of pounds, further illustrates how expensive crime is on businesses
• due to rise of social media, thieves moving away from traditional crimes such as robbery and turning to the internet to commit crime, referred to as cybercrime and mainly involves stealing highly confidential information. This crime is typically impacts banks, insurance companies’ and energy suppliers
  A: illustrates the versatility of crime does not just impact businesses in person but online too
• Altogether, around a third of all crime relating to businesses is connected to the internet, overall costing an estimated £44 billion

Question 4

TAXPAYERS

Answer 4

• Crime can also have large impact on taxpayers, because it is the taxpayers who fund the integral public services that deal with crime, such as courts and prisons
• Every year, cost of the varied policing needed for modern society increases, orensic policing costing £44 million per year alone. In Scotland in 2024/2025, the overall cost of policing was £1.6 billion.
• For example, in 2023 Met Police stated Just Stop Oil protests cost them £20 million, shows how fast all of the money needed to tackle crime adds up, further eats into the money of taxpayers
• judicial system costs around £2 billion each year in UK, heavily demonstrates how expensive repercussions of crime are
• from start to finish a murder in UK costs the taxpayer around £3 million, cost includes police investigation, forensics, healthcare and court costs

Question 5

conclusion

Answer 5

In conclusion, it is very clear that crime has a colossal impact on wider society due to the sheer amount of aspects of wider society that are negative impacted by crime. In my opinion, it is the negative financial impacts of crime that is the most significant problem. This is because astronomical amounts of a taxpayer’s money are spent dealing with crime. This is money which could be spent elsewhere instead of on dealing with criminals, which shows that crime is a severe issue that places a burden on several aspects of wider society.