#Seriousoffense

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The root causes of crime

The pursuit of the understanding of the main causes of crime becomes a very difficult endeavor . Some say that it comes from the feeling of greed , our surrounding growing up, family trait or the lack of intelligence. To better understand the matter I believe it is incredible important to acknowledge that  Individuals need to be responsible for their own actions. An understanding of root causes cannotand should not be seen as a way to absolve us from personal accountability. However, whileindividuals have an obligation to act responsibly and with respect for their fellow citizens,communities have a responsibility to address those conditions, which hinder healthydevelopment and can become the breeding ground for rime. The root causes of crime are welldocumented and researched. Crime is primarily the outcome of multiple adverse social,economic, cultural and family conditions. To prevent crime it is important to have an understanding of its roots.                    The economy of the country is one of the main factors in the increase or decline in crime activity.In addition to lack of financial resources, poverty manifests itself in a lack of educationalopportunities, lack of meaningful employment options, poor housing, lack of hope and theprejudice against persons living in poverty.Our social structure mirrors to citizens and communities what we value and how we setpriorities. Social root causes of crime are: inequality, not sharing power, lack of support tofamilies and neighborhoods, real or perceived inaccessibility to services, lack of leadership incommunities, low value placed on children and individual well-being, the overexposure totelevision as a means of recreation.Many researchers  study the theory  of believing that family structures has  a big role  in criminals.The CSCPC believes that families are uniquely placed in contributing to raising healthyresponsible members of society. But the task of putting children first goes well beyond thefamily to include communities and society. Dysfunctional family conditions contribute to futuredelinquency. The conditions  that might lead to a life of crime might include:Parental inadequacy,Parental conflict , Parental criminality ,Lack of communication (both in quality and quantity),Lack of respect and responsibility,Abuse and neglect of children,Family violence. It has come time to go from reacting to crimes with violence  to  having  a real  goal as a society to prevent crimes.Crime can be closely linked to the conditions for children in our community. There is a stronglink between reducing risk and building resilience in children and decreasing crime. Problemsarise when the larger social, political and economic systems within which children live jeopardize the family's resources and create stress on the family unit. As a result, the provision of appropriate care and required resources to all children will have great significance for their long term physical, intellectual, and emotional well-being and their development into independent, healthy adults. I truly believe Thecriminal of tomorrow is often the vulnerable child of today.Vulnerable children are those at risk for significant and enduring social, emotional, or behavioral problems. These children are more likely to be dependent on public resources over the course of their development, particularly through the child welfare, social assistance, corrections, or mental health service systems. All children are potentially vulnerable and may develop emotional or behavioral problems when their own physical or emotional resources are unable to meet the challenges of their social and physical environment.There are three levels of prevention: Primary prevention efforts try to ensure the health of the community as a whole byattempting tostop adverse conditions from developing in the first place. Programs which address parenting,family support, adequate housing, etc. could all be considered primary prevention if they areuniversally accessible and offered before any difficulties are identified. Primary prevention canbe the most cost-effective method of dealing with a problem because it can reduce costs in manydifferent areas over the long term. Universal programs are only ever as effective as their abilityto include and support populations at risk.Secondary prevention attempts to stop a crime from occurring after certain "warning signs" haveappeared. An example might be programs, which focus on a specific problem or problem group.Anti-social ordelinquent behavior (e.g., disrespect for school staff; spray-painting slogans onbuildings) can often be stopped through early intervention in problem situations beforethey become more serious and lead to a life of crime or victimization.Law enforcement efforts generally fall into the category of tertiary prevention. Sentencing aperson to prison ensures that they will not commit a crime while serving their sentence. This iscrime prevention after the fact because the person is known to the community and has alreadybroken the law. While these measures ensure (for a time) that an offender cannot commit anotheroffense they cannot reverse the effects of the original crime.        It is crucial to understand the main risk factors .When several risk factors are combined, there is a higher probability that crime occurs. "RootCause" is not the most accurate term when talking about risk factors. In fact a cause-effect mindset makes it too easy to assume that the existence of a risk factor inevitably leads to criminality.For example, the research literature overwhelmingly points to poverty as a factor in criminalbehavior. However, many poor people do not engage in crime. A great deal of research andstudy has taken place in the field of criminology over the past 50 years. The data is supported bylife-cycle studies in other disciplines including health, education and social science. Researchfrom studies in Europe, Canada and the U.S. examined personal characteristics of convictedoffenders, relationships with family and peers, self reporting data, neighborhood characteristicsand other data to come to four major conclusions: Occasional and Persistent Delinquents,We need to distinguish between occasional and persistent offenders. For example, 81% ofadolescents commit a criminal offence at some time during their adolescence (e.g. mischief,experimentation with drugs, shoplifting, etc.); 9% of adolescent offenders commit seriousoffenses. In economically disadvantaged areas, 7% of men are responsible for over 50% of alloffenses. Persistent offenders engage in criminal behavior earlier and continue longer.High Crime Areas are the focus points  of many  criminality analytical to acknowledge the roots of crime.  Crime rates differ markedly within cities as well as different areas across Canada. For example,northern communities in Canada have substantially higher violent and property crimes than thenational average. Police forces everywhere can point to neighbor hoods and urban areas whichexperience higher crime rates.Risk factors combine to make the probability of criminal behavior more likely. No one variableshould be considered in isolation. Following are the major risk factors supported in research.Many persistent offenders begin their involvement in anti-social activities before and duringadolescence. Age alone is not a risk factor. It must be looked at in context of poverty, racism,family violence, parental and community neglect and problems at school. Research intopersistent offending has emphasized the need to focus prevention efforts on early childhoodyears. Birth to age 5 is the most critical time for healthy social and emotional development. In our current society , gender is use to  understand crime.While crime rates for females have increased in recent years, males are much more likely to beinvolved in crime. The research points out that crime usually involves aggression, risk taking anpredatory behavior. I want to conclude this paper by expressing what is the main cause of crime in my opinion. Social and Economic Disadvantage goes to the top of my list when it comes to the causes of breaking the law. Low family income and poor housing often amplify poor parental supervision, marital disharmony, inconsistent care, poor nutrition, chronic health care problems, poor school performance and psychological disorders. Unsatisfactory living conditions are particularly stressful during pregnancy. Fetal development is negatively affected by maternal stress. Such stress has shown to be closely related to ill-health, neurological problems, slow development and behaviour disturbances in children. While there is not direct cause and effect relationship between poverty and crime, the conditions arising out of poverty combine to create "high" risk populations who are over-represented in the criminal justice system. Read the full article