Social issue

Crime And Social Policy

Crime is a feature of all societies at all times. Nevertheless, certain trends and patterns appear consistently at different times and places. In general, traditional societies—i.e., rural and agricultural societies that lack significant economic development—tend to have more violent crime and less property crime than economically developed societies. In traditional societies, violent crimes such as murder, rape, and assault may be fairly common and often are accepted and tolerated as an unavoidable part of ordinary life. As these societies modernize and become economically developed, violent acts become increasingly unacceptable as they also become increasingly rare. At the same time, while valuable property exists in traditional societies, it generally is not very portable—the most valuable property may include such things as land and animals—and thus there is little property crime. Ownership of valuable, portable goods expands rapidly with economic development, and with that expansion comes a vast increase in the stealing of those goods, along with a vast increase in the ways in which those goods can be stolen (e.g., stealing with a pen rather than with a gun).

Posted by Jason Gabutan