Criminology: theories, methods, and applications

Criminology

The first point in a study of crime in United States is that there is a lot of emphasis on studying it, but the exact position is unknown. One of the studies says that crime in the country is at a much higher level than the figures reported to the police. The second point is that the number of policemen does not seem to have any considerable effect on the actual rate of violent crime and has a negative effect on the rates of property crime. The third factor in crime rates is the number of persons in correctional institution employees, but any increase in their numbers do not have any effect on the rate of violent crimes, and a small positive effect on the rate of property crime. The rates of commission of crime depends a lot on the economic conditions in the country and when it is clear that there is an increase in per capita income, there is a clear reduction in violent crime and also property crime. (Niskanen, 1994)

The rates of crime are also affected by certain demographic factors and cultural conditions. It has been seen that increase in the birth rate to single mothers leads to increase in crime rates. The demand for more police and related employees depends on the level of the salary for public employees in that area, and increases with per capita income and increases with the rate of crime. At the same time, the government passes bills regarding crime when the election situation demands it. The last of these bills has increased sentences for a large number of crimes, stopped the use of semi-automatic rifles by the people and decided to spend $30 billion on police, prisons, and other social programs. The basic reason for passing this bill was that it was supposed to reduce crime.

There is also expectation that increase in federal grants automatically caused a good effect to take place. In certain cases like sexual assault and child molestation, the laws have been changed so that the previous behavior of the person will also be taken into account. When juveniles are found to be members of street gangs and convicted of drug offenses, they will be punished with an additional ten years in prison. Foreigners when convicted of aggravated felony will not be permitted to be deported. A third conviction for felony and not including murder will be punished with life imprisonment which puts individuals in prison for longer periods than penalty for murders. (Niskanen, 1994) Thus it is clear that at the government level there is clear indication that crime is being taken seriously, though the effects are unknown.

The actual rates of crime in the country are also unknown and there have been predictions that the release of former convicts would increase the rate of crime. One of the studies by National Crime Victimization Survey however found that there were 23 violent crimes per thousand people in 2002 as compared to 25 victims per thousand in the year 2001. The figures given by them were even higher ten years ago, and their figures show that the crime figures have been halved in the last ten years. Another set of surveys by Uniform Crime Reports released by the CBI shows that crime has flattened out in 2000 and started increasing again in 2001. This tracks homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft. (Marks, 2003)

At the international level, another study showed that inequality does not significantly affect rate of crime, unless the comparisons are made only between selected countries. According to them probably culture determines rate of crime more than income. (Neumayer, 2005) the question then comes out as to what really causes persons to get into violent acts as no two sources seem to agree. There is certainty however that the acts are intentionally violent and they are reinforced by certain situations. The process of this reinforcement is not very well understood in the study of criminology. One thing we know is that people who commit crime get high pleasure from the act and this is the main reason for the act. This pleasure comes from some symbolic meanings of the act and the neurophysiologic high that is given to them by the act. (Motivations for Violent Crime among Incarcerated Adults: A Consideration of Reinforcement Processes) This means that before any individual has to commit violence, he has to move into his mental state for being able to commit violence. It does not happen without warning. This is true even for individuals who are normally violent. Only when a person is mentally unstable, he can flash into violence, but then that sort of person is likely to be in a mental ward.

Sometimes it can be even argued that when an individual puts a weapon in his pocket, he has a desire to commit violence. Even they may have some mental restrictions against committing violence, and this causes some to alcohol. Drinking is a very common excuse for becoming violent. The next question is in their approach. For muggers and some others the regular procedure is to approach the victim for apparently getting some information or small item. During the entire talk that is going on he evaluates the awareness of the victim about his intentions and the victim's readiness for his own defense. Another set gets into a hot interview where they are talking normally in one minute and then immediately getting into an emotional blitzkrieg. For a defense against this strategy, the victim has to be able to deal with high emotional violence and not react in a stunned and confused manner. If the victim is able to show a desire to get into extreme violence, the attacker may give up his move to attack. (Five Stages of Violent Crime)