Unit 13 Nature and Causes of Crime

Unfortunately, preventing is not an easy task. Crime has long been a major problem in the United States. In 1983 more than 12 million serious crimes were reported to the police. This is an increase of over 17 percent since 1974. Recent reports suggest that the crime rate is leveling off. In some areas the crime rate is declining. Nevertheless, in 1985 there was more crime in the United States than there was five years earlier.

Crime rates are generally higher in large cities than in urban areas. But during the last few years crime has grown fastest in suburbs and in rural areas. Crime is not confined to any particular group, but youths between the ages of 15 and 24 commit more violent crimes than people in any other age group. Male commit six times as many crimes as females, but in recent years the crime rate has grown fastest among women.

One way in which crime affects us all is that it costs everyone money. The cost of lost or damaged lives, or of fear and suffering, cannot be measured solely in dollars and cents, but the total cost crime in this country has been estimated at over $ 100 billion dollars per year.

The lack of agreement on the causes of crime indicates that they are many and complex. Evidence suggests that poor social and economic circumstances are somehow related to crime. However, crime cannot be totally explained in terms of poverty, particularly if one considers that crime rose fastest in this country at a time when the number of people living in poverty was declining. And in recent years crime rates have risen fastest in suburbs and in other affluent areas. Furthermore, if poverty were the sole cause of crime, one could not explain why countries much poorer than the United States have far less crime.

Some people explain increasing crime in terms of rising population. They say there are more people, particularly young people, so there is more crime. While this is true to a degree the crime rate has risen faster than the population rate.

Will tougher penalties curb crime? Many people think so, but the United States already has some of the toughest criminal laws of any Western nation. Tough penalties may deter people from crime, but compared with the number of crimes, only a small number of people ever go to prison. Thus, some experts say that longer prison terms are not the answer. They say certainty of punishment is more important than the length of sentence. Adequate police protection obviously has something to do with the crime rate, but studies show that simply increasing the number of police officer does not necessarily reduce the overall crime rate. Finally, some experts point to peer group pressure, family background, and declining morality as causes of crime. Still other blame crime on the use of hard drugs, such as heroin. Undoubtedly, family influences, a decline in moral standards, and drugs play a role in crime, but these factors are probably not total cause either.