Crime Seriousness Survey - Essay Example

Crime Seriousness Survey Crime Seriousness Survey A lot of surveys are taking place nowadays to measure the seriousness of criminal activities. These surveys are considered very important in making policies of a country. Although there have been lots of debates about the ways these surveys are taking place, but still there is no doubt that these surveys have gained lot of popularity and interest in past few years. People from different fields, whether it is field of education, politics or some other field, have taken keen interest in determining the seriousness of crimes. These surveys have focused on determining the awareness of crime in general public. In this way they have been able to understand the psychology of different people in society about crime. Some of these surveys are based on asking views about criminal activities from local people and some are based on views from different countries. The different questions that may be asked from people could be about what they think of different crimes and what punishments would they have given if they had the authority to do so. From the answers obtained the surveyors determine seriousness of crime. However there is another issue that must be addressed to determine the seriousness of crime. This issue is of "the circumstances under which the crime took place". There is a big difference between "a crime for pleasure" and "a crime because of extremely harsh conditions". Many people would think that those who perform offensive activities for pleasure should be given greater punishment as compared to those who have done it because of some helpless conditions. The purpose of the surveys is usually to get the viewpoint of individuals as well as of whole society. The perception about seriousness of a crime varies from place to place. Each culture has its own rules and regulations and hence the punishment given against an offensive action may also vary from place to place. The research about determining the seriousness of crime is taking place for many years. According to these researches, the crimes taking places in the world include violent offences, crimes related to property dealing, white collar crimes etc. However again the question arises that, is it correct to asses the seriousness of criminal activities in different societies according to a single rule. Every society has its own moral values and religious beliefs, therefore it is a possibility that they may differ in view about which crime is a serious one and which is not. Among different kind of crimes, violent offences are considered to be the most dangerous and harmful. Many people argue that the general view of a society about seriousness of a crime is directly affected by the kind of a crime and by the frequency with which that crime has occurred. It is clear from different studies that the number and type of criminal activities taking place in a specified time period is consistent which means that these activities are undoubtedly occurring frequently. Usually to determine the danger of a crime, surveys are conducted among people living in same society but with different social status. These surveys may be between two altogether different societies. It may also be the cases that, survey of those people is conducted who have emigrated from one place to another. Thus they might be asked about how they feel about change in cultural values of two different countries. As laws and authorities differ from one place to another, immigrants might face problems as their acts might be right according to their own country but they might not be right according to laws and rules of the new country. Culture is something which describes the beliefs of people, their moral values,, their rules, laws and regulations and other practices that are developed by people to adjust in a society. Thus cultural values and society define the way in which people act and react to different situations. The way, the people react to a situation is dependent on what they themselves think about the events taking place around them. In many cases these reaction are dependent upon the knowledge of a person about laws of the society. The reaction produced by people might be a positive one or it might be a negative one. Every person living in a society has its own way of perceiving about what is going in the surroundings. Therefore right from the beginning of his life he faces different kind of people. The people surrounding him tell him how to spend the life and how to respond to different situations. A person then adapts himself according to different elements of culture. The way he adapts himself in the society becomes his habits and represents his character. Now consider that if all people would have been born in same culture they would have been able to develop same characters. However it is the difference in cultural values which results in difference in characteristics from person to person. It is the negative attitude of a person towards difficult situations that results in to violation of rules. The rules are made by society and these rules are usually acceptable by all people of society. These rules represent the standardized way in which these people live. These rules are made for the betterment of the people. The objective behind these rules is to provide security and protection to the people. Every person that belongs to the society must be bound to obey those rules. And as there are many societies in the world, a person should not only be aware of the rules of his own country but also to the rules and regulations of other countries. A society consisting of many different cultures is always difficult to handle. Because of the fact that there are many different people from different cultures it becomes deadly difficult to unite them to single agreement of rules and regulations. Thus a rule or act which is acceptable to one group of society might be altogether opposite to rules and acts of some other group of society. This results in to a situation where crime acts may take place. So a crime can be defined as: "A crime is an act by a member of a given social group, which by the rest of the members of that group is regarded as so injurious or as showing such a degree of antisocial attitude in the actor that the group publicly, overtly and collectively reacts by trying to abrogate someone of his rights" (Makarewicz 1906). There are so many different types of people and they all see the world from their own point of view. Each individual person that makes up the society has his own style and way of living, which in most of the situations is different from other individuals. Even within a single society, cultural incompatibilities may be seen because of difference in background of people. For example when a person within a same country moves from town to a city there is massive amount of difference in living standards. Thus people have to adjust accordingly. From the research it is evident that mostly the criminal acts are because of this cultural incompatibility. Whenever and wherever the definition of laws and perception of a situation differs, we see a conflict arising, resulting in some sort of criminal act. Thus what we conclude is, when a uniform society of people is converted in to a non uniform society, consisting of people from different backgrounds, it results in producing problems in the form of criminal acts. Read More