Home > Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Group > Discussion Board

What is the societal significance of crime?

I'm not sure what your question is, but here goes.  Crime began being systematically studied in the 1870s, when the science of criminology began.  Of course, crime has been with us since the earliest civilizations, from petty thievery to mass genocide, but the study is more recent.

Many studies show the social causes of crime, including poverty, low education, mental disturbances, prejudice, addiction.  This is undeniable, as even a cursory examination of research shows.  Typical is Edwin Sutherland's 1939 Principles of Criminology, which shows crime as a learned behavior.  A major study in 1966 found

"Crime is primarily the outcome of multiple adverse social, economic, cultural and family conditions...  These are complex and interrelated, but can be summarized in three main categories: Economic Factors/Poverty; Social Environment; Family Structures."

On the other hand, many studies show that crime "springs from greed, not need (Barnes and Teeter, 1949).  According to Crime and Punishment in America

"The desire for material gain (money or expensive belongings) leads to property crimes such as robberies, burglaries, white-collar crimes, and auto thefts. The desire for control, revenge, or power leads to violent crimes such as murders, assaults, and rapes. These violent crimes usually occur on impulse or the spur of the moment when emotions run high. Property crimes are usually planned in advance."

In Victorian England, the middle and upper classes believed crime was caused by societal influences, and that "progress" would solve the problem.  They also believed their society was near that point, and so were horrifed when, in his 1856 trial for planning and carrying out 'the Great Train Robbery', his judge asked Edward Pierce why he had done it.  Pierce answered, "I wanted the money."

As for major crimes of a political nature, such as genocide, this too has been with us since ancient Sumeria.  These crimes are usually driven by ideals of racial or cultural superiority, and have caused atrocities from Assyria to the Saxon invasion of Celtic Britain to the Nazis in the 1930s and '40s, to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.

Studies have shown us that crime is a part of human nature, and probably cannot be eradicated totally.  Educating people about how not to choose criminal behavior is one answer, and not just with the threat of punishment (Bailey and Smith, the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 1972).  But before things get better society must grasp three basic principles:

1.  The social causes of crime must be addressed.

2.  Criminals are not always of limited intelligence.  Prisoners in jail are only the small fraction of lawbreakers who get caught.

3.  The majority of criminal activity goes unpunished, so non-coercive measure to address the problem must be sought.