CRIME

Crime

Crime: Causes and Solutions

Crime

Crime refers to a set of acts that are carried out against the laws that are being implemented and generally accepted by the entire society overall. Crime can also be defined as 'the conduct of a person or persons who do not meet the requirements of the given society and violate the laws of that particular society'. As a result, the crime may differ depending on criminal code of each country (Roleff, 2000).

Types of Crime

The types of crimes vary not only according to their substance, but also according to their potential harm and exploitation (Barak, 2000). Blue collar crimes are committed by a person of lower social status against a person of higher social status. These crimes generally involve offenses such as thefts, kidnapping and damage to the property (Goldson, 2004). Corporate crime is conducted by any legal business entity or any person acting on behalf of that entity. These crimes are generally severe and may result in huge loss to third party caused due to fraud, spam, unfair layoff, production of illegal products etc (Roleff, 2000). White collar crimes refer to committed by a person of higher authority against a person of lower authority. These crimes are very controversial because equity in justice is hardly present (Wilson & Petersilia, 2002).

Causes of Crimes

For decades, statistics have shown that blacks in the U.S. are arrested and imprisoned for committing crimes in higher proportions than any other racial group. Minority leaders say law enforcement officials purposely single out minorities and assume them to be criminals, a practice known as racial profiling (Wilson & Petersilia, 2002). Police intending to search for illegal drugs or weapons, analysts say, stop many more blacks and Hispanics on highways and on city streets than they do whites (Hakkanen, 2004).

Poverty is another major ...