Absolutely any activity, human decisions have reasons and conditions under them. In the context of this statement, there are determinants of crime. These are its causes, conditions, premises, dangerous factors. We will acquaint you with them, both in a general manner and in various types of crimes.
Definition of a concept
The determinants of crime are those social phenomena, their combinations, that give rise to atrocities in our world. Directly studying the subject of our conversation criminology.
Understanding that these are the determinants of crime helps to get to know the origin of the word. His "ancestor" is lat. determinare ("define"). Determinants - causes and conditions acting together. How to understand this? The crime will be completely for some reason in particular circumstances.
But this is not a dogma. Not all criminologists agree that the reasons and conditions here should be purely social. You can observe both economic and political. Also, the determinants of crime are not necessarily anything negative. Sometimes a positive fact becomes the reason - liberalization of the economy, the introduction of civil liberties, and so on.
Determinant Analysis Approaches
In criminology, there are four approaches to understanding the determinants (causes and conditions) of crime.
Interactionist. The reason he exposes the interaction of society and the individual surrounded by conditions conducive to the growth of crime. This interaction is bidirectional. Hence its result - the criminalization of society, the acquisition by a person of criminal experience, traits characteristic of the offender.
Traditionally dialectical. How are the causes and conditions of crime understood here? The explanation is simple. The conditions of the external material world affect both public consciousness and the awareness of a particular person. As well as individual motives for committing a crime.
Conditions for reasons, and reasons for behavior, act here unidirectionally. Like this? Refracting in the mind of a certain person, the general conditions form for him specific reasons for the offense.
Traditional. Crimes are committed here only under the influence of external influence. Someone or something is always pushing a person to do crime. Due to its controversy, the approach was never considered as the only true one.
Conditional (conditional). And here there are no more determinants - causes and effects. Only factors affecting crime.
Inside the conditional approach, there are two categories:
- One-factor. The decisive role is given to any one circumstance.
- Multifactorial. The offense is committed under the action of a complex of circumstances. For example, social factors of crime.
Now consider each of the components of the subject of conversation separately.
Causes of Offenses
The first of the determinants of crime is its causes. These are socio-psychological factors that directly affect the commission of misconduct and atrocities. In other words, they reproduce offenses. Crimes are their natural consequence.
And now specific examples:
- hedonism;
- greed;
- aggressiveness;
- nationalism;
- money-grubbing;
- legal nihilism;
- disrespect for the neighbor, public order and so on.
It is impossible to single out the main cause of crime, which would be responsible for the entire spectrum of crimes committed (and committed) in the world of crimes and atrocities. The task of criminology will not be to compile a collection of such reasons. For in reality, many unique factors affect the commission of a crime - living conditions, the state of society, the identity of the offender, and so on.
Even the most common causes of crime will have different effects on its qualitative and quantitative indicators in a specific example.
But it is important to say the following. It is the reason that will influence the decision to commit a crime, the choice of its motive and purpose, means of translating the plan into reality.
Terms of Delinquency
Conditions of crime - this is not the factor that will certainly contribute to the commission of a crime. Rather, it is those social phenomena and situations that help the offender to form the cause, to facilitate and develop the nascent criminal plan. It is important to understand one thing. Conditions cannot give rise to a single offense or crime. But this does not exclude them from the determinants of the phenomenon.
Here's what depends on the conditions in the crime:
- The choice of ways to implement their malicious intent.
- Selecting an object for criminal assaults.
- The nature and extent of the harm caused to the victim.
- Location, time of the crime.
What may relate to the conditions of the offense:
- Environmental factors. Insufficient activity of law enforcement agencies, material conditions, public attitude to specific types of crimes, etc.
- Factors that characterize the attacker himself. Alcoholism, drug addiction, criminal past and so on.
Let us introduce such a remark. The same factors can be attributed to the reasons and conditions in a particular situation. An example is the poor organization of security at the warehouse. It will be the reason that the employee of this organization will explain his crime. And at the same time, the condition for encroaching on the object of "outside" attackers - precisely because of this, they chose this warehouse, and not another.
Classification of determinants
In criminology, there are several classifications of the causes and conditions of crime. Here are the basics on which they are built:
- By subordination (level of action). Determinants are distinguished that are characteristic of crime in general, as well as for its individual variety, a specific crime. The higher the level of action of a certain determinant, the more it will become common.
- According to the content. Types are distinguished here: socio-economic, legal, organizational and managerial, psychological, educational and so on. Direct here will be the socio-psychological determinants.
- By nature. There are two types. The determinants that form the motive of the crime are ideological, legal, economic, social problems. The reasons and conditions that facilitate the implementation of crime are, for example, the ineffectiveness of control in a particular area.
The determinants of crime in modern Russia
Let us look in this vein at the present situation. The determinants of crime for the Russian Federation are as follows:
- The spiritual crisis of society. This is a decline in centuries-old moral values, an increase in the number of alcoholics, drug addicts, among whom recidivism thrives.
- The aggravation of social contradictions, which contributed to the economic, legal, ideological, political reforms of the nineties.
- A comprehensive social crisis is the main reason for the growth of crime in the country. The point is its systemic nature - the phenomenon affected the government, the economy, the social sphere, and ideology. The greatest criminogenic significance is the huge inequality between rich and poor.
- The crisis of the system, which is designed to fight crime, is the incomplete legal framework, insufficient funding for law enforcement agencies, the cessation of the structures that deter intruders — people's squads, comradely courts, supervisory commissions, and so on.
- Economic problems - the closure of large industrial enterprises, the irrelevance of a number of professions, unemployment. And the imperfection of the legislation on punishment of crimes related to corruption leads to an increase in economic crime.
- Legal nihilism that has affected many sections of society. It starts from neglecting the rules of transport, safety at work to ignoring the criminal law, which cannot but lead to recidivism.
Now let's look at the causes and conditions in the context of common types of offenses.
Female crime
The main determinants here are the following:
- Active participation in public life.
- Weakening of social institutions - in particular, family values.
- Strengthening hostility, conflict in society.
- Tension, anxiety in the family.
- The development of prostitution, alcoholism, drug addiction, vagrancy.
Features contributing to female crime:
- Theft at work. Many women occupy leading, responsible positions, which provide them with access to material values that cannot be obtained legally.
- Women are employed in prestigious and low-paid jobs. There is no motivation to hold onto it - some prefer the criminal path to such employment.
- Many enterprises abolished sexual qualifications. Men and women work equally, although the latter is worth a lot of effort.
- Women are psychologically, physically weaker than men in the majority.
Adolescent crime
A type of offense that will be the weak point of any civil society. The determinants of juvenile delinquency are as follows:
- Negative example of parents, friends, relatives and acquaintances. This is the determinant of 30-40% of crimes committed by minors.
- Incitement from the elders.
- The lack of family ability to meet the needs of the child.
- Advocacy of antisocial activities in popular culture, the media and so on.
- Long idleness.
The prevention of juvenile delinquency is comprehensive control by parents (or their legal representatives) and an educational institution. It is important to establish a system that would facilitate the employment of teenagers. Another important factor in preventing juvenile delinquency is the full-fledged work of institutions for children with strong-willed and intellectual developmental delays.
Environmental crime
The general determinant here is the contradictions that can arise in the interaction of people with nature. Between the possibilities of the state and society for research, the use of resources and their actual needs, between the forms of ownership of natural goods and their accessibility.
Among the more specific determinants are the following:
- Reassessment of human capabilities, the ability to optimally influence the environment.
- Focus on false, dubious priorities when affecting the ecosystem.
- Inadequate ideas about the volume of natural reserves, unreasonable confidence in their inexhaustibility.
- Indifferent attitude to nature, its condition, harm.
- Disrespect for environmental law.
Crimes in this area are committed by both responsible persons and citizens who do not hold such positions. Their deeds can be divided into selfish, reckless, intentional, with a different purpose. The biggest concern is the crime of officials. The determinants for authorized citizens will be:
- False orientation to reduce the cost of natural wealth in case of failure to comply with the prescribed environmental measures.
- The speeding up or simplification of the processes of processing resources, their irrational use.
- Ignoring the consequences that harm the environment.
Economic crime
One cannot but mention the niche of economic crime. The sphere of business, managing will always be distinguished by the existence of contradictions. Its important feature is the presence of competitors. And that means the methods of their unfair elimination.
Stratification of people by property status is one of the main determinants here. Low incomes, unemployment, and low living standards for many criminals become justifiable factors for committing atrocities.
The enrichment of some occurs due to the deterioration of the condition of others. This state of affairs sometimes becomes a determinant for serious offenses in the area of management, which are already criminal offenses. It is impossible not to mention that some of the citizens see a way to improve their well-being only through dishonest paths. A prime example is corruption.
Social unlawful crimes
The sphere of public relations is very multifaceted. Therefore, the number of determinants of crime for it will be much greater than for the same economic. Criminologists here require the most in-depth and comprehensive analysis of all causes and conditions.
As practice shows, social relations, which expose a person who is impaired in the end, will always push her to protest. Which sometimes grows to crime. Are there many people in the modern world who are completely satisfied with their social position?
Another of the determinants here is the reassessment of the self. His skills, capabilities, character traits. A man is in some kind of contradiction - he believes that he deserves more, but reality makes him put up with his existing underestimated social position. From which he sees no way out, and, at times, finds him in crime.
An important determinant of antisocial atrocities is nationalism. Someone sees its reasons in the politicians' calls for sovereignty, the idea of the election of a state, someone - in the historical hatred of individual peoples to each other. As a result - world tragedies in the form of terrorism, the use of weapons against civilians, terrifying bloody national wars.
Public relations and morality are closely related. The fall of social institutions and moral values (such as religion, family, honor and dignity of the individual) is one of the key determinants of antisocial crime. And not only her. None of the spheres (politics, economics, art) can exist without respectable moral standards.
The criminologists see the prevention of this serious problem in attracting creative intelligentsia to its solution, proper comprehensive education of the population, instilling social norms in educational institutions.
The determinants of crime - the causes and conditions that make the choice in favor of crime decisive. They cannot be universal. The determinants are individual for a segment of history, the sphere of human life, for every person who transgresses the law of personality.