I've noticed we've got news & politics threads but not general crime threads & sometimes we need to air how we really feel about crimes which have been committed & not all crimes are international or publicised enough to go in the news thread & some crimes got their own threads but not all crimes are serious enough for this & a lot of people are interested in crime. I used to put them in my poetic vent about the news thread but since it was merged into the general news thread I didn't know whether I was still free to express myself poetically there never mind say what I thought about minor, local crimes so this is for that. I also know that as a society we're both fascinated by crime & afraid of it. In fact there's a study dedicated to crime, criminality & criminals alone. This is criminology. There is a lot of crime fiction written & sold in book shops & lent in libraries as well as true crime books. The amount of programmes about crime on T.V. is very large.
Now I've got no crime stories to share so to start off I've decided to write something different about crime.
What exactly is a crime?
The simplest definition of a crime is that they're acts which in the time & country where they're committed are illegal. The acts that are criminal in 1 country aren't always illegal in others & the definition of crimes change over time. Examples of crimes that change over time are drug use & refusal to pay T.V. licenses as in Victorian times cannabis was easily available over the counter & used for certain ailments & refusal to pay T.V. licenses was definitely not a crime before John Logie Baird invented the T.V.
I could go into detail about who determines the laws in each of these countries but that belongs to the realm of politics as does the question of who chooses the government & law-makers of a country.
Why do people commit crimes?
There are many theories about why people commit crimes & some of these have changed through time. 1 of the oldest theories about why people committed crimes was phrenology which stated that people committed crime because of the bumps on their head & people's heads were felt to see where bumps were which told phrenologists whether they'd committed crimes or not. Thankfully this theory was discredited ages ago as was eugenics which followed it which stated that criminality was passed on through genes so that problem families bred problem children & so on. The Nazis took eugenics that seriously that they sterilised mentally ill people & criminals so they couldn't produce mentally ill people & criminals. Fortunately this theory has been discredited for a long time too as we learnt more about genes. A new theory based on genes has replaced it but this 1 has been proved to be true in some cases by twin studies. Family theories stated that sometimes problem families produce problem children but by using bad parenting skills. These theories though feasible sometimes aren't always plausible because they don't explain how some people born into criminal families don't commit crime & some people who aren't born into criminal families do. People join gangs which commit crimes but not all criminals join gangs. I think rational choice theory is the most plausible theory of why people commit crime but still doesn't explain all crimes. (This states that most people are rational. They have wants & needs & consider all possible ways of getting what they want including criminal ways. If criminal ways of getting what they want don't have a big enough deterrent & are easier ways of getting what they want they get what they want this way). I think the reasons why people commit crime is a mixture of all except the 1st 2 theories I mentioned above & I think there are even more reasons why people commit crimes.
What do you think?
I guess I could also ask whether you think that punishment is enough of a deterrent where you live. I don't think in the U.K. punishment is enough of a deterrent for criminal acts.
Now I've got no crime stories to share so to start off I've decided to write something different about crime.
What exactly is a crime?
The simplest definition of a crime is that they're acts which in the time & country where they're committed are illegal. The acts that are criminal in 1 country aren't always illegal in others & the definition of crimes change over time. Examples of crimes that change over time are drug use & refusal to pay T.V. licenses as in Victorian times cannabis was easily available over the counter & used for certain ailments & refusal to pay T.V. licenses was definitely not a crime before John Logie Baird invented the T.V.
I could go into detail about who determines the laws in each of these countries but that belongs to the realm of politics as does the question of who chooses the government & law-makers of a country.
Why do people commit crimes?
There are many theories about why people commit crimes & some of these have changed through time. 1 of the oldest theories about why people committed crimes was phrenology which stated that people committed crime because of the bumps on their head & people's heads were felt to see where bumps were which told phrenologists whether they'd committed crimes or not. Thankfully this theory was discredited ages ago as was eugenics which followed it which stated that criminality was passed on through genes so that problem families bred problem children & so on. The Nazis took eugenics that seriously that they sterilised mentally ill people & criminals so they couldn't produce mentally ill people & criminals. Fortunately this theory has been discredited for a long time too as we learnt more about genes. A new theory based on genes has replaced it but this 1 has been proved to be true in some cases by twin studies. Family theories stated that sometimes problem families produce problem children but by using bad parenting skills. These theories though feasible sometimes aren't always plausible because they don't explain how some people born into criminal families don't commit crime & some people who aren't born into criminal families do. People join gangs which commit crimes but not all criminals join gangs. I think rational choice theory is the most plausible theory of why people commit crime but still doesn't explain all crimes. (This states that most people are rational. They have wants & needs & consider all possible ways of getting what they want including criminal ways. If criminal ways of getting what they want don't have a big enough deterrent & are easier ways of getting what they want they get what they want this way). I think the reasons why people commit crime is a mixture of all except the 1st 2 theories I mentioned above & I think there are even more reasons why people commit crimes.
What do you think?
I guess I could also ask whether you think that punishment is enough of a deterrent where you live. I don't think in the U.K. punishment is enough of a deterrent for criminal acts.
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