Criminology Academic Proofreading Services

Understanding criminology

Criminology goes beyond simply solving crimes to include subjects such as sociology, psychology, social anthropology, geography, political science, and philosophy to get to the root causes of crime, the psychology of those who commit it, and how victims are selected. Research such as Bernasco & Luykx (2003) has shown that burglars have very specific criteria when selecting properties to target, and geographic profiling has been used successfully to track down serial killers and rapists, as described by Medeiros (2014). Criminology includes examining the motivations and mindsets of those that commit crimes in efforts to bring attention to the conditions such as poverty and neglect that lead people to turn to crime.

When people hear the word “criminologist” their minds often turn to fictional sleuths such as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot. However, a more apt way to turn would be to consider great philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham or Robert Merton rather than fiction puzzle solvers. Throughout the ages, philosophers have argued over the causes of crime and advanced notions such as Strain Theory, where a person’s inability to live up to the expectations put upon them by society and their peers leads them to either take up crime to achieve their aims or drop out of regular society and join a deviant subculture such as by becoming gang members.

Motivation and opportunity

Other theories common in essays viewed by Criminology academic proofreading services focus on what stops people from resorting to crime, such as self-control. Someone who wants an expensive luxury item they cannot immediately afford has the choice of either getting themselves into debt to purchase it, saving up and waiting to purchase it, or attempting to steal it. Those with high self-control and an understanding of fiscal responsibility are more likely to have sufficient patience to wait and save up for the item, and many people hold the view that these traits rely heavily on a person’s individual upbringing and intelligence; however, much like susceptibility to developing a gambling addiction, anyone is capable of making poor financial decisions, whether out of error, greed, or coercion.

Debt is another heavy motivator for crime, many people feel that turning to crime is their only option when they find themselves unable to afford the basic necessities for life, although some are motivated when they cannot afford luxury items that they merely desire rather than need. However, the notion of stealing a loaf of bread to feed a family is a classic ethical dilemma presented in academia and the problems that lead to such situations are typically systemic with no meaningful short-term or small-scale solutions.

Accountability and enforcement

There are many bigger crimes in society that carry relatively lower sentences than relatively minor crimes. For example, when financial firms crashed the stock market in 2008 through offering sub-prime deals that were essentially bad debts that were never going to be repaid bundled with slightly less bad debts and sold with a AAA rating to investors, only one person served any form of a prison sentence, yet billions were wiped off of the markets, many businesses collapsed and many people went bankrupt and died in penury.

Meanwhile, robbery in the US carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for a first time offender with no previous criminal record.

The Mueller investigation into interference in the 2016 US election provides a historical case study in institutional accountability. Criminology students should distinguish allegations, findings and outcomes, and consult the underlying records when writing about a legal case.

Cross-border investigations also illustrate the difficulties of jurisdiction and enforcement. Any discussion should identify the relevant dates and distinguish an indictment from a conviction.

Policing and rehabilitation

The science of Criminology does not only cover the period criminals are caught, but also includes studies of how criminals are treated in custody and seeks to understand both how former criminals are perceived in society after they have served their term and ways of reducing recidivism rates. An ideal prison system should be continually searching for ways to make itself redundant; unfortunately, for-profit prisons operate under a mandate of ensuring a minimum occupancy rate to gain sufficient funding, which leads to practices such as delaying prisoners’ release schedule based on the level of new incoming inmates rather than on prisoner behaviour.

The implications for such a system can have a profound and far-reaching impact on society.

The police have various powers and accountability, and have the very difficult task of balancing public security, police safety, and individuals’ right to privacy. Police in certain US states have the power to declare civil forfeiture in which they bring charges not against a member of the public they have stopped, but against that person’s possessions. This was designed to help officers take drug money out of circulation quickly and efficiently, although its actual usefulness is questionable at best. In practice, it led to civilians having assets seized without means of recompense or recovery and the police forces seizing the assets using seized money to purchase personal items (such as a margarita machine in one highly publicized example) and visit casinos, creating a clear conflict of interest and leading to media outrage.

References

Bernasco, W., & Luykx, F. (2003). Effects of attractiveness, opportunity and accessibility to burglars on residential burglary rates of urban neighborhoods. Criminology, 41(3), 981–1002.

Medeiros, João (2014) How geographic profiling helps find serial criminals. Wired Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/article/mapping-murder

Sibilla, Nick (2014) Cops In Texas Seize Millions By 'Policing for Profit' Forbes Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/06/05/cops-in-texas-seize-millions-by-policing-for-profit/#51c69ae91a81

Strain Theory. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminology#Strain_theory_(social_strain_theory)