Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem - Essay Example For instance, there may be higher numbers of tourist during the summer season and chances are that crime will escalate at that time. Additionally, rural records may experience higher cases of crime given the fact that planting seasons attract high numbers of workers. It is also very likely to find higher reports of crime during the summer season rather than any other season. One explanation for this is the fact that townships normally have higher alcoholic drinkers in the summer than in the winter. These and many other factors explain the variance in crime patterns recorded over time. (Field, 1990) Economic factors are quite crucial in the process of analyzing crime patterns. This is because persons who feel the pinch of an economic downturn are the marginalized individuals. They are the ones who react sharply to these changes by committing crimes. For example, research has shown that when the economy recedes, consumption patterns are also adversely affected. When the economy is doing well, people's consumption tendencies increase. (Hirsh & Goldthorpe, 1978) Consequently, potential criminals also increase consumption patterns because they have the ability to meet their needs. On the other hand, when consumption tendencies reduce, then higher there will be higher cases of crime; this is especially in relation to property crimes. The reason for this is that the economically marginalized need to meet their expenses but economic pressures may deter them from doing this. Consequently, they end up choosing illegal methods of acquiring property. (Field, 1999) Additionally, one must not ignore the link between crime and the availability of goods. Some research in this area shows that there is a link between crime and stock available. The two factors re directly affected in that when stores record high amounts of stock, then crime prevalence also increase. Home Office (1999) came up with a direct relationship between these two issues. They asserted the ratio of burglaries/theft to increases in stock is 2:1. This means that whenever stock levels increase by on percent, crime prevalence increases by double this amount. Burglaries and theft can also be associated with gender. Surveys conducted by the Home Office (1999) indicate that crime prevalence tends to increase when the number of males increases. This is especially so when these youth belong to the masculine gender. Their statistics show that when males older than fifteen and younger than twenty increase by one percent, then crime prevalence in the region increases by a similar percentage. However, some criminologists have argued that the converse is also true. When there is a rose in the number of older people within any one region, then chances are that there will be greater levels of crime again. This is because an older generation is quite venerable to attack and they provide fertile grounds for crime victimization. Social factors that effect crime It is important to note that the most important features here include; Technology Lifestyles Popular culture Society's drug patterns are constantly changing. In the past psychologists used the drug popularly called ecstasy during marriage counselling. However, society has changed all these. Young people now take the drug as a form of recreation. One can make the same assumption about the drug Viagra. This means that many young people no