The Reasons that Lead to Crimes - Essay Example

CRIME ,ORDER AND SOCIAL CONTROLL Crime to the layman is any act of lawlessness which is unacceptable in the society and punishable by law. Crimes over the years in many societies have increased due to certain social problems such as drugs ,Alcoholism,Inproper parenting amongst others which are in no doubt fueling the act crime so much that it has become an issue of great concern. As a result of this the international community in an attempt to combat it ,have set-up international security bodies such as the Interpol to be able to tackle crimes that also committed across borders. To be more technical crime is any culpable action or omission prohibited by law and punished by the state. Crimes can be grouped into different categories depending on the basis been used to categorise it. Some of these basis include *The kind of punishment given to the various crimes. *Who the crime affects.eg.civil crimes are crimes which infringes ones right to civil liberty. *The type of effect the crime has. e.g. Whether it broke peace ,damage properties,e.t.c Everything that occurs on this earth has a reason. As mentioned earlier crimes are as a result of a circumstance or condition initiating it.It is therefore very necessary for anyone who wants to be able to figure a way of controlling crime to first of all try and identify what actually are causing or pushing people into crime. It is a fact that the punishing of people who commit crimes to serve as a deterrent to others is one way of preventing crime and maintaining order in our societies but the best way is to know what actually starts these crimes and try to stop those things so that they are unable to generate or lead anyone to crime. Personally I made some researches and found these under listed points as some of the causes or things that lead people to crime. These causes depend on the individual committing the crime. *UNEMPLOYMENT *INADEQUATE SALARIES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR FOR EMPLOYEES WHO HANDLEVERY CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS AND LARGE SUM OF MONEY WHEN WORKING. *LACK OF GOOD PARENTAL GUIDANCE *PEER PRESSURE *IGNORANCE OF THE LAW Taking unemployment into consideration it is very common to have communities with high rate of unemployment toping the "charts" when it comes to crime rates .You will agree with me that the youths are the most vibrant age groups and therefore if there is no form of good and legal employments in their communities to engage them selves in, in order to earn some income, the only option left for them is create jobs for themselves sine the authorities in their communities have failed to do so. When this happens a great percentage them will think of nothing either than these criminal acts which they believe can earn them quick and big cash. This type of case is very serious especially when majority of them do not have any form of skills such as sewing, playing football e.t.c to engage in . Most countries in the world also have their government or public sector workers as the least paid workers. This in a long run poses a great danger to the state especially when workers who handle very confidential documents and great deal of money at their work places. It is here that the problem of in adequate salaries proofs to be another cause of crime, which many have overlooked. This is because these workers get tempted a lot by the volume of money they handle and are forced to start stealing some of these monies and falsify documents to be able to get something extra aside their scanty salaries or income to supplement it. In most cases the crimes committed as a result of this are embezzlement and forgery. Charity they say begins at home. When parents fail to perform their duties effectively as far training and raising their children the right way is concerned, the children end up growing with certain undesirable characters such as theft , bullying e.t.c.and these can develop into very dangerous criminal acts such as armed-robbery and assault. Peer pressure especially among the teens is also another factor which can be linked to improper guidance of children by their parents. This is because when parents fail to guide their wards as to the kind of people to take as friends, their wards end up befriending the wrong type of friends who deceive them in their own perfect cunning ways into either drugs which will lead them crime or directly into crime. The final factor I would like to elaborate on is the problem of ignorance of the law. Many in our various communities especially the illiterates do not have any idea about the country they live in. Some even do not know there exist such a thing. They therefore always find themselves committing crimes ignorantly. Most of these crimes are not all that serious but since ignorance of the law is no excuse they are prosecuted and if found guilty punished. I believe the recognition of the causes of crimes that have been listed above and the way they influence or lead people into committing crime was worth doing since it has showed us how certain little things we overlook tend to cause great harm to us. Problems I will say are mostly issues that cause great harm or hinder the smooth running of a process .Taking societal problems for example ,they cause great harm to the society in diverse ways and distort the process of maintaining constant peace and order in our societies. The problem of crime, which is also a societal problem, is no exemption when it come to culprits of such actions ie.the causing of harm to the society and distorting the process of maintaining constant peace and order in our societies. Before something becomes a problem to mankind or for that matter the society as a whole ,it appears on the scene at its pre-mature state as a stumble-block which the society must put in place a quick strategy to overcome, but when these stumble blocks are left unattended to they later metamorphose into a different state called a "problem" It is then and there that the trouble starts since society has to spend more money ,strength,time,e.t.c. than it would have spent previously when it was in premature state(stumble block) if it wants to tackle and solve the problem. I therefore personally see the problem of crime as something that begun as a simple stumble-block that society could have easily cleared or solved but saw it insignificant at that moment and that gave the opportunity to this "insignificant thing" to develop into something very difficult to solve. That is why the whole world is now struggling and paying priceless rewards for not tackling this problem effectively at its initial stages in order to bring it under control. A lot of money is been pumped into providing the best logistics the security personnel may need in order to be abressed with the fast growing skills and technologies of those responsible for these crimes. The administration of the country prisons is also another difficult task for many governments especially in developing countries as far as the feeding and catering for inmates are concerned. The worst of it is the human resource, which is been left to waste since the inmates who might be filled very good entrepreneuring skills do not get to put those skills into action to help improve the economy of their country since they are always confine within their prison walls. Although some countries may use prisoners as source of labour, that is never the best way of maximizing the great potential in them to help develop the county's economy. The point I am trying to make here is not that people should to go unpunished for their crimes they commit but rather what I what the world to focus much more on how they could wipe out the crimes completely from happening so that all these large sums of money been spent on the acquisition of those expensive logistics for our security agencies to enable them combat crime and managing our prisons could be used on much more profitable projects that will help the country as a whole. The wasting away of the human resource who fall victim to crime will also be prevented when more attention is spent on tackling the issue of crime more effectively by not only looking at punishing people to serve as a deterrent to others but also identifying and analyzing some of those factors that cause people to commit crime. This is because many countries especially the developing and underdeveloped ones need a very strong human resource to be able to become developed nations and if crime wipe's most of them away then their dreams of becoming developed will be difficult to become a reality. The problem of crime goes a step ahead to affect to affect the society in many other diverse ways apart from the ones stated above and all these are evidence to what actually the problem of crime is and it has a devastating effect on the society. When one takes a critical look at kids from communities where crime is on the increase, it will not be surprising to find a majority of them been very violent in nature and this is because they grew up with the mentality of life as something that only the strongest can prosper in which is wrong. They apply a law of the jungle to the life in a society where humans live and that is "the survival of the fittest". This affects the child psychologically and he/she grows up without a single idea about what peace is. When you follow the effects of this problem of crime very closely and analytically, it will be noticed that these effects most of the times still end up leading people into crime itself again and so It becomes something more or less like a vicious cycle which needs to be broken in other to stop the process. CRIME EFFECTS *Economic problems which lead to poverty and unemployment which are also causes of crime. *Psychological effect on younger generations, which makes them more violent and vulnerable to commit crime easily and frequently. e.t.c. Crimes are not committed by only people who are poor or do not have any source of income or employment, but also by some greedy and evil charactered people who hold high offices in our societies If we look once again at the causes of crime, the explanation given to why lack of good parental guidance was mentioned as one come to light here. Children who are not given good parental guidance end up growing with certain undesired characters, which as a result become part and parcel of them and making it unable for them to quit those characters. They even continue to practice such shameful acts when they hold high and respectable positions in the society. It is therefore not surprising to see some people who hold respectable positions in the society committing crimes. Such crimes are normally termed as "crimes of the powerful". Not only crimes committed by people who hold high offices in the society that are called "crimes of the powerful". This is because someone may not hold any high office in the society but can still be powerful either through his or her own dubious ways or through a good course. This makes it quite clear that there could be several criteria people can use to judge or label someone as a powerful person depending on the society the person lives. For example an individual may be labeled as powerful in a village because he/she owns the largest part of the lands in the village and someone may also be termed as powerful in the city because he/she holds a very high position in the government. When you go a bit deeper you will notice that even in the city being in a high office in the government may not be the only basis for someone to be called powerful and the same applies to the one from the village since owning the largest part of the lands will not be the only basis. It could also be finalized that no matter where the powerful person may be from the backbone for him/her been powerful are their riches and authorities they have. They therefore able to get whatever they want anyhow anytime with the help of their money which they use to manipulate people and their authorities which they use in scaring people from speaking the truth about the evil they do. There are various groups or kinds of powerful people and so the types of crimes some of them commit differ. Those committed by some powerful people in the city are mostly the most dangerous and they also have more impact on the people in the society. This is because the so-called powerful people are mostly found occupying very high government positions and if such powerdrunk, greedy and self-centered people lead the nation, you could imagine the harm they will cause. Some powerful people in the society are very good and generous but those bad nuts amongst them are those who commit the crimes. These "crimes of the powerful" are mostly covered unnoticed especially if the one committing it is still in power or still has some sort of authority in the country or society he/she lives in. These crimes reflect a very devastating and unsecured future of a society or nation. This reduces the rate of development in such a society and only few people will be found living in comfort and high percentage of them living in abject poverty. People who live in countries where these "crimes of the powerful" are very common have their civil rights infringed upon. Even the taxpayer does not see the usefulness of the tax he/she pays and enjoys basically nothing out it. Two of the numerous things I think give these so-called powerful ones the space and chance to commit their crimes are ; *Absence of Democratic system of Government *Lack of effective laws *Wrong Attitudes Democracy is one of the best systems of governance in the world. It makes sure any decision taken by the leaders go a long way to the advantage of everyone in the country. Democracy has a lot of features such as multiparty system, freedom of speech, cheques and balances e.t.c.I would like to elaborate a bit on the issue of democracy and how it can help reduce "crimes of the powerful" to be specific. Democracy has three arms to which power of the government is distributed. These arms are the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. These arms do not interfere in each other's businesses but rather serve as check on each other. Some governments have also added the third arm, which is the press and all these help to prevent power drunkenness and puts the government officials on their since whatever they will do in the dark will be brought to light be the press. The cheques and balances system practiced in democracy also makes the officials account for how funds are used and for what reasons they are used for so that there will be transparency. You would agree with me that when such systems are in place the rate of crimes especially "crimes of the powerful" would be reduced drastically. Examples of some of the most common crimes these powerful people commit are; *Embezzlement *Extortion *Forgery Embezzlement can be best described as a fraudulent misappropriation of a property by the one it is entrusted. Some government officials when put in charge of funds of certain government projects end up using the part of the money for their personal interests and cut down the costs of the materials or buy inferior ones so that his act will not be exposed anyway and also the project also completed. When this occurs most of such projects do not end up doing what they are intended for since the right things and processes, which were supposed to be used, are not used. The government then ends up spending so much extra course in maintaining the project and making it achieve its purpose. Extortion is the act of misuse of office to illegally taking money or goods from people in the name doing the offering them a favor to get something whiles they already have every right to that thing already. For example contractors who are qualified for a contract are made to pay something apart from the official payments they are made before their contracts will be processed by the one in charge of that. Forgery which is also another common example of "crimes of the powerful" mostly occurs as a result of people who engage in embezzlement creating false documents to be able to cover what crime they have commited.In most cases documents are either falsely created or alterated to look genuine. Some also do it before they commit the crime so that even when they are committing the crime it will seem as something legal and genuine. Although crimes are committed by different classes of people ,the central element still remains and that is all are crimes before the law and moreover everyone is equal before the law and a such all crimes must be given correct judgment without giving preference to whoever committed it but rather what the person really did. It is rather unfortunate crimes are given different approaches using the basis of the personality behind the crime. That whether the person is a "high ranked person" or otherwise. Most "crimes of the powerful" in our societies go unpunished and sometimes even unnoticed. Even in situations were they are punished it is not rare to see them been given a less stiffer punishment than the crime really deserves. The reverse of this situation happens when the crime is been committed by a "common citizen". The security personnel get very serious with their investigations and the judiciary giving very firm justice to the culprit. This type of approach to crime only happens to "crimes of the powerful" when the one who committed it is out of power or authority and the new authority discovers it. People normally see these "crimes of the powerful" as crimes but rather a kind of crazy tradition that once you are in power you can get what ever you want anyhow ,anywhere and any time without been questioned by anyone. This is when the problem of wrong attitudes come in one of the reasons why these crimes are still been committed. The new authorities also do not most of the times bring out these crimes because they want to bring justice into the country but also to able to use it as a political strategy to destroy their opponents image and if not for this reason these crimes would not have even come to light. A group of crimes called cooperate crimes are mostly crimes individuals commit against cooperate bodies. Relatively, when compared with state crimes it looks more under control and less common. The main reason behind this is that cooperate crimes dealt with very strictly without any compromise. That alone serves as a deterrent to others to refrain from it. These corporate bodies have very strict rules and laws which govern them and these laws are not easy to be bent and disobeyed without been caught. Most people in these corporate firms also do not have such great power and authority high profile state officials have. They therefore are unable to cover up their crimes early enough to prevent been caught. It is therefore very obvious and clear that corporate bodies have less to as far as crime prevention is concerned and for that matter are able to regulate crimes far effectively. State crimes on the other hand are committed by very high profile government officials who have so much authority. Such people after committing their crimes are able are able to cover things up quickly so that the crimes are not noticed.Thier crimes as stated before are seen or discovered only after they loose their power, office and authority. The state is also struggling to control the occurrence of state crimes by making their laws more effective Power is also been distributed fairly especially in democratic countries so that power is not concentrated in the hands of only some individuals. This will help prevent power drunkenness which gives people the chance of committing crime and going unpunished without any problem or opposition. The involvement of the press in this issue by some countries has also helped a lot in state crime prevention since no one wants his/her name published in the press for committing crime. Some world bodies such as the United nations also in their attempt to solve ensure these high profile crimes are reduced in the world have increased their efforts in educating more and more people on impoetant issues such as democracy,transparency,Fundamental Human rigts ,amongst others so the can stand up against any crime committed by their leaders since at the long run they tend to suffer the more. I believe to be able to control and stop this global problem ,we have to look very closely at the causes and start tackling this problem from there.ie.the roots ,the origination of the problem. Without that all efforts being made will meaningless.Itwill be like just trying to get rid of unwanted weeds by just slashing them to reduce their heights forgetting the roots which supports it and gives it life is till present to give it a new life. Thank you and I pray the issue brought to light in this essay will be given a serious consideration to help safe all of us from crime and its dangerous effects and overcome it before it overcomes us. REFERENCE www.answers.com (Webster's Dictionary-1913)-14/03/2006 "Embezzlement is ." www.answers.com (Thomas Ghale)-15/03/2006 "Foergery" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/crime -(14/03/2006)"crime is any culpable action" Read More