Motives of Crime - Essay Example

If one were to look deeper into the causes or motives of crimes, the result would be a complex world of biological / congenital defects in a person, psychological problems or mental disorders, and existing environmental and social factors for the criminals. This is according to Ceriaco (2007) who did in-depth research on the topic for his paper “Factors Influencing the Commission of a Crime”. All of these mental and emotional shortcomings in a person, when left unchecked and untreated, result in a change of their mindset that then segues into the commission of a crime. In fact, if we were to look at the worldwide crime motives, we would see that the aforementioned factors always exist in one way or the other within the personality of the accused. Therefore, it is safe to say that there are truly universal causes for the motives behind the crimes that exist today.

Since our society has tried everything from probation to suspended sentences, and varying degrees of prison levels in order to try to rehabilitate an offender, it is safe to say that our current crime control methods are not effective at all. Therefore, we must try another route in crime prevention. Instead of punishing the offender, we must try to get to the potential offender instead. In other words, prevent the crime from happening rather than punishing the criminal after the fact. That is why I agree with Byrne and Taxman (2006) who suggested that our system needs to recognize the “ need to develop both individual, offender-based rehabilitation programs and the community-based change strategies targeting the “at-risk” communities where many offenders reside. “ Only by effectively preventing a criminal mindset at the grassroots level can we actually prevent or control the continuously rising crime rate across the world.