What Are the Connections between Social Demographics and Crime - Essay Example

WHAT ARE THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SOCIAL DEMOGRAPHICS AND CRIME? Name Institution Professor Course Date Introduction Crime and social demography tend to enjoy the complex and reciprocal relationship. Numerous aspects of social demography such as age, gender, propensity to marry, decisions to move, family formation, socioeconomic stratification, race, and ethnicity continue to demonstrate the diverse influence on involvement in the crime. Researchers believe that social demographic factors serve as a significant antecedent to crime. In the recent research activities, practitioners have focused on linking age, sex, race, and ethnicity, marriage, and immigrant concentration to variation in the criminal behaviour among society members. These factors also play critical roles in determining diversities in the rates of crime. The purpose of this research paper is to demonstrate connections between social demographics and crime in relation to offending/criminalization. Age and Crime Research practitioners believe that age plays a critical role in the determination of criminology in the modern context. According to age-crime curve, crimes tend to be most prevalent during in mid to late adolescence. From this perspective, the incidence of crime tends to increase with age until individuals attain about 16 to 20. From this age, the incidence of crime will decrease in adulthood. In the utilisation of the age-crime curve, Hirschi and Gottfredson (1983) believe that the tool or curve is universal. In this context, it is ideal to demonstrate the fact that the curve applies in almost all demographic, as well as socioeconomic categories and offences. In the recent years, researchers have been able to indicate or demonstrate the precise age for the peaking of crime in agreement with diverse characteristics, as well as conditions in different offences (Heidensohn, 1996). From a general perspective, crime rates tend to peak at ages between 14-and-25-years old. In the case of the United Kingdom, more young people, between these ages, tend to live in urban areas, thus, the platform for the exploitation of opportunities for crime. Such individuals tend to have numerous opportunities such as more shops, businesses, houses, and cars to commit a crime or offend. Similarly, there are fewer opportunities for the crimes relating to workplaces because of the rare sights of young people holding authority positions. This approach plays a critical role in creating numerous opportunities for the work-related crime for the older people. Additionally, middle and upper-class youth experience fewer opportunities for crime because of the platform to engage in full-time education in comparison to their working class youth within the society. In most cases, working class youth engage in low paying jobs because of their low workplace skills and eventual unemployment, thus, the urge to offend or commit a crime to act as the source of excitement and financial resources (Barnes, Welte, Tidwell, and Hoffman, 2013). On the other hand, women with children tend to experience fewer opportunities to commit crime because of the family or parental obligations and responsibilities. After the attainment of 25-years-of age, there tends to be a steep drop in the rate of crime because of the approach by people to acquire new roles such as wage earner, spouse, and parent among others. From this perspective, the propensity of imprisonment becomes a relatively serious issue because of the enormous implications on the life of the criminal and subsequent responsibilities. In adulthood, people focus on taking personal responsibilities such as career and, work as well as other social responsibilities making it critical to assess implications of their behaviour on the individuals they value or love. Alternatively, lack of responsibilities proves to contribute to criminal activities because perpetrators of such crimes do not have to consider implications of their behaviour on others. In most cases, conformity to peer-group behaviour tends to promote deviance, especially among the young people. Among the young people, peer pressure contributes to increased urge among the youth to adopt new forms of deviant behaviour such as underage drinking and truancy leading to offending. From this perspective, socialisation experiences of middle and upper class youth might integrate more stress relating to conformity to the social rules or formal norms. Middle and upper class youth experience less desire to support specific lifestyle through crime because of the ability to obtain or gain financial resources from parents. For a certain group of young people, crime or deviance might be a source of social status within the context of the peer or family group (Lynch, 2002). According to various research practitioners, criminal behaviour is a response to the feelings of strain such as anxiety in the midst of stressful activities or events. From this perspective, individuals engage in impulsive, as well as egocentric activities with the intention of overcoming the eventual feelings. According to Hoffman (2013), prevalence or severity of crime might diminish as individual attain adulthood because of more responsibility, as well as choice. As people age, stressful events are less likely to generate or evoke strain, as well as crime. In such instances, it is ideal to demonstrate the fact that older people or individuals have the ability and potentiality to withstand stressful events effectively and efficiently. Gender and Crime In the course of exploring the relationship between gender and crime, it is vital to consider the integration of the feminist theories. According to feminist theories, gender (socially constructed expectations relating to behaviours and attitudes of women and men: femininity and masculinity respectively) plays a critical role in social life. This includes its influence or implication on issues such as criminal offending, criminal justice processes, and victimisation. Similarly, feminist theories believe that patriarchal sexism excludes women and girls in criminology from a systematic perspective. From this illustration, the tendency to value men and masculinity over women and femininity is ideal in the illustration of marginalisation of women in criminology and offending. In this context, feminist theories aim at including female perspectives and experiences in diverse research practices. According to diverse research practitioners, women tend to commit fewer crimes than men, which make female offenders come out as less of a problem for the society. Additionally, most crimes by women tend to be trivial in nature. This plays a critical role in understanding the limited existence of research papers on women and criminology (Carlen, 1995). Sociology and criminology tend to provide a field dominated by males. These male practitioners focus on examining or exploring criminal issues by men. The objective of the traditional criminology is to control behaviour. There are three critical approaches towards explaining the existing relationship between women and offending or criminalization in the contemporary society. These approaches include biological and physiological explanations, sex-role theory, and transgression (Andresen, 2006). Different writers have been able to use biological explanations to explain why the overwhelming numbers of women do not offend while small minorities do. The explanation demonstrates the belief that women are innately different from men, thus, the tendency to have a natural desire to care and nurture for the children and other family members. These values do not support crime. From a normal perspective, women are, therefore, less likely to commit a crime in comparison to their male counterparts in the society. On the other hand, certain women researchers have been able to explain the fact that hormonal and menstrual factors can influence the minority of women to engage in criminal activities in diverse circumstances. From a physiological aspect, Lombroso sought to explore the relationship between anatomical features in female criminals and non-criminals, thus, the platform towards understanding the existing or potential relationship between gender and crime. Lombroso did report diverse data comparing skulls and brains, as well as the width of cheekbones, size of jaws, and thighs of prostitutes and ‘normal women’ in an attempt to explore the role of gender in criminology (Carlen and Worrall, 1987). Lombroso’s overall argument demonstrates that biology prevents women from becoming criminals rather than encouraging them to engage in such activities concerning criminal behaviour. In the course of documenting male criminals, Lombroso notes the influence of physical abnormalities such as an extra toe or nipple in the identification of the criminals within the society. These abnormalities were also applicable among female criminals. According to the sex-role theory, women prove to be less likely to commit a crime in comparison to their male counterparts because of the influence of their core elements of being female to limit their ability and opportunity to engage in criminal behaviour. The theory incorporates the concept of socialisation, which demonstrates that girls undergo diverse socialisation approach to their male counterparts in the society. Socialisation enables women to acquire certain values, which do not lead to committing criminal behaviour. Parsons believes that most children rearing are the duty of mothers enabling girls to be clear role model following the influence of socialisation emphasising on caring support. Similarly, females are less likely to commit crime because of the closer levels of supervision. There are also limited opportunities for women to engage in the criminal activities or to offend. Like in the aforementioned statement, people need to have the opportunity to commit a crime or offend. The narrow range of roles that women execute limits their opportunities to offend because of confined positions by socialisation and social control in comparison to their male counterparts within the society (Van Mastrigt and Farrington, 2009). Race/Ethnicity and Crime Media practitioners have the tendency of illustrating that the only difference between races is the skin colour. Nevertheless, a critical examination of the statistics by race tends to indicate that pigmentation might not be the only thing separating individuals within the society. Comparison of the official statements or statistics from the 2011 census and 2011 crime statistics from the Ministry of Justice reveals the races in England, as well as Wales and their propensity to commit most crime. The data is essential in evaluating or accessing three races: whites, blacks, and Asians. According to the existing data, Asians commit slightly more crimes while the blacks engage in the most crimes within the society. On the other hand, the whites commit proportionally the fewest crimes among the diverse groups within the United Kingdom. Research practitioners believe that blacks in the case of England and Wales commit significant crimes, which all more violent in comparison to their white counterparts in the society. From this perspective, statisticians believe that Blacks are about 6.6 times more likely to commit murder in comparison to the whites within the society. Similarly, blacks are approximately 7.3 times more likely to engage in violent crimes relating to firearms offences in comparison to their white counterparts within the society. In this context, it is ideal to demonstrate the fact that blacks commit more than 25 percent of the robberies in the contexts of Wales and England despite composing 3.3 percent of the population. From this illustration, the blacks are more than 12 times likely to commit robbery in comparison to their white counterparts within the society. There are diverse issues and concepts relating to the tendency of the blacks offending within the society. One of the critical issues is the tendency of the blacks to experience diverse racial discrimination increasing their likelihood to depend on substances and alcohol. The influence of drug or substance abuse tends to affect the decision-making by the blacks within the society, thus, the engagement in the crimes. Blacks who experience diverse racial discrimination issues, as well as racist stereotypes continue to ‘buy into’ the pejorative stereotype that they are violence. These people are more likely to offend because of the approach to experience heightened states of self-control, depression, and anger. From this perspective, blacks’ tendency to offend relates to the propensity of encountering racial injustices in the form of racial discrimination and racist stereotypes. It is essential to note that race and ethnic disparities in violent victimisation and offending are long-standing. From this illustration, blacks tend to suffer higher rates of robbery, as well as homicide victimisation in comparison to their white counterparts within the society. In most cases, homicide comes out as the leading contributor of deaths among the young blacks and females. The disparities result from social forces, which concentrate race with poverty, as well as other social dislocations. The relationship between race and crime became a great interest to the researchers in the 1970s. In the case of the United Kingdom, the media did play a critical role in demonstrating the perception that certain ethnic groups in the region are more likely to commit crimes, thus, ending up in prison because of the issue. Members of the ethnic minorities are no more prone to crime in comparison to other sections of the population in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, such entities experience over-representation in the crime statistics. According to most society members, ethnic minorities prove to be more prone to engagement in the criminal activity in comparison to the white Caucasian people. Another reason for the explanation of the increased likelihood of the blacks to offend in the society is the influence of socio-economic status on the society. In most cases, black communities tend to associate with poor living conditions and poverty because of high rates of unemployment or discrimination in the employment positions. These contribute to lack of financial resources among the blacks, thus, the tendency to engage in criminal activities to satisfy their basic needs and desires. Blacks tend to offend to gain the financial resources, thus, the platform to execute such behaviors to alleviate their conditions within the society. Similarly, lack of opportunities such as education lands these persons in poor situations within the society. On the other hand, the black communities associate with increased substance abuse because of anxiety, depression, and discrimination. These aspects or factors contribute to the likelihood of the blacks to commit crime in the society in comparison to their counterparts with ideal opportunities to improve their conditions. Conclusion Conclusively, social demographics tend to play critical roles in understanding criminology. In the development of this essay, the focus was on the utilization of diverse social demographics such as age, gender, and race/ethnicity in the course of understanding crime disparities with reference to the case of the United Kingdom. According to the findings of this research paper, crime tends to peek between the ages of 14-and-25-years-old because of the peer pressure, socio-economic status, and drug or substance abuse among the young people. Similarly, men are more likely to commit crime in comparison to their female counterparts in the society. This relates to the role and socialization processes among women and men in the society, thus, the likelihood to offend based on diverse opportunities. Finally, the research ascertains the existence of the relationship between race/ethnicity and crime or offending, thus, increased potentiality of the blacks to commit crime and face subsequent jail term. List of References Andresen, M.A., 2006. Crime measures and the spatial analysis of criminal activity. British Journal of criminology, 46(2), pp.258-285. Barnes, G.M., Welte, J.W., Tidwell, M.C.O. and Hoffman, J.H., 2013. Effects of neighborhood disadvantage on problem gambling and alcohol abuse. Journal of behavioral addictions, 2(2), pp.82-89. Carlen, P. and Worrall, A. eds., 1987. Gender, crime and justice (pp. 1-14). Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Carlen, P., 1995. Virginia, criminology, and the antisocial control of women. Punishment and social control, pp.211-28. Heidensohn, F., 1996, July. The Impact of Police Culture: setting the scene. Women in policing focusing on the mechanical and political environment. In Paper to the Australian Institute of Criminology Conference: First Australasian Women Police Conference. Sydney (Vol. 29, p. 30). Lynch, M., 2002. The culture of control: Crime and social order in contemporary society. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 25(2), pp.109-112. Sampson, R.J. and Lauritsen, J.L., 1997. Racial and ethnic disparities in crime and criminal justice in the United States. Crime and justice, pp.311-374. Van Mastrigt, S.B. and Farrington, D.P., 2009. Co-offending, age, gender and crime type: Implications for criminal justice policy. British Journal of Criminology, p.azp021. Read More