Why Do People Commit Crime? Who Gets Punished?

The answer is complex, yet simple. We are the ones who get punished and it is because of the underlying problems that cause people to commit crime. But what are the causes? What is the root of the problem?

A personal observation I made, was that no matter what our background is, where we came from, what we look like, we all seemed to have the same ideas. I often think about a quote that a Professor from Temple said once "Crime is a problem, but more importantly, crime is a symptom of a much deeper social problem...a societal dysfunction in which every one of us, by omission or commission plays a part." So the answer to the question of why people commit crime lies within each one of us. If we are not the ones who are committing the crime, we may be enabling it by omission.

Many reasons can be listed for committing crime such as lack of education, poverty, peer pressure as societal reasons for committing crime. Social structure plays a major role and forces people to commit crime at times. Most elected officials, government commissions or courts feel that crime is a personal choice and those who choose to commit crime should be punished and be accountable for their behavior.

This reasoning would hold true if the root cause and effect of crime was addressed and corrected and only those who commit crimes were indeed, committing crimes because of their personal choice. However, that's not the case in today's society. With all the breakthroughs in science and technology today, we still have yet to determine how to reduce crime. Perhaps we have determined the cause but we have neglected to address it. Nevertheless, those who wish to prevent crime before it occurs cannot ignore the fact that the majority of the people filling our prisons come from impoverished backgrounds and lack a formal education.

The Social environment that we grow up in plays a major role in our lives and how we live them. If you talk with people in the neighborhood, residents will describe the desperation and poverty stricken conditions that they lived in and how the adapted to the situation by doing what they had to do to get by. Some may tell you how they act out frustrations by turning to a life of crime. Many times there is something much deeper going on inside and we're just not looking at it or addressing it. You come to the realization that we need to invest now in our future and by doing that, we may just be able to make a difference. Public monies need to be directed into prevention programs that will address the situation before it becomes a problem. We need to recognize that investing money in early childhood development produces a safer and healthier society over the long run.

As I speak with people, those who have been incarcerated, they eventually open up and reveal personal statistics about themselves or their family. It becomes more evident that many of those incarcerated and some who were not incarcerated but were heading down the wrong path. Most lacked a stable family life that included a strong presence of a mother and a father. One can conclude that the reason why some commit crime is a combination of both individual reasons and societal reasons. Lacking a complete family often leads toward despair, which then leads toward committing crime as a way of acting out the frustration. Family stability has dwindled because of the high incarceration rates. In some cities, more than half of all young men are under criminal justice supervision on any given day. With so many men in prison, the pool of people available for marriage has dwindled.

Hearing the real life accounts today and observing how families are torn apart by the effects of poverty and our social environment, just makes me more determined than ever to extract the abscessed tooth out and give a double dose of penicillin to ensure the infection goes away. I just can't figure out why people won't prescribe the right medication or why when prescribed, we don't take it. It sure would solve a whole lot of problems.

How can politicians turn a blind eye on this social disease that is disabling our society? How can one not feel compelled to go out and right the wrong when you see the effects of the wrong right in front of your own eyes, and they look like you, talk like you, feel like you, smell like you and think like you?

I am convinced that in order to make an effective change, I have to walk in my brother's shoes so I can feel how his feet hurt or I won't be motivated to buy him a new pair or fix the ones he has. And, if I have already walked in his shoes, and I know how they feel, but I don't have the resources to fix them all by myself, then I have to recruit others to also take a short hike in his shoes so they too can help me get him a new pair.

Realistically speaking, if we really want to make a positive impact and right the wrong, then more people need to educate themselves to this problem, see the causes and fix it. More people need to be aware of the human beings we have behind prison walls. More people need to realize that there really is a solution. It may take longer than ever to fix, but eventually, it can be fixed. Therefore we, all of us, need to spread the word. If our eyes, minds and hearts were open, just imagine the impact it would have on society if others just took it to see what it's all about. I think it would definitely have a positive impact on our declining society and just might propel those caught up in the system to keep climbing out of the spider web.