Crime is disobeying certain rules and regulations that are put in place by a governing authority. This disobeying can lead to arresting or conviction of an individual. Most crimes in UK fail to be reported, followed, or even not able to be proved. Modern societies refer to crime as offences against the state or public authorities. These authorities ensure that certain mechanisms are put in place to approve or disapprove certain behaviors, example use of police to ensure that the laws and regulations are followed. Change in political, social, economic and psychological conditions affect the level of crime and its definition.
On the other hand, class is economic or cultural classification of groups in the society. In the modern UK society this groupings (class) is divided into three: upper class, middleclass and lower class. The upper class and the lower class are normally referred to as the powerful and the powerless within their own societies. Certain factors determine class or group membership of an individual. These elements include ownership, family kinship, education, and occupation. These classes have distinct lifestyles that portray their class (Dostoyevsky, 1954).
Consequences of class groupings include income inequality, lifestyles, and occupation and education differences. It has been argued that those in poverty had equal perception on work and family as compared to those from the other classes. This is supported by research showing that poor or lower class in UK feel shameful about their position in the society. There is still enough evidence indicating that class still exists and that it affects each and every individual in the society. This is well portrayed through personal identity also the upper class is a good example because they only support intermarriages between peoples from their class (Darrow, 2007).
When we look at economic hardship in UK, we are able to see the clear relationship between class and crime. Society’s perception of these criminal acts indicates that all criminals come from poor, low class families who had little opportunities in life. In UK, these individuals engage in these crimes because they are looking for something to put into their mouths and also for supporting their families. Most of their family members are unemployed or if there is any employed he or she is not able to support the whole family. We cannot say that economic hardship is the only existing reason for individuals to engage in crime but also social classification and development of lower class have raised differences in the society because of big lifestyle differences between the rich and the poor. Though not all poor people are criminals and also not all rich people are innocent (Grelling, 2007).
In UK, criminologists’ targets are the crime patterns to understand further crimes nature. By doing this, they discovered that crimes cause would be better understood by looking at its rate. Statistics display that crime is high in poor neighborhoods as compared to an economically well developed neighborhoods. Therefore, crime is seen as related to poverty. Data from self report used to analyze crime between class shows that individuals in all social class report same crime but those in lower class are normally arrested hence displaying the fact that there are high rates in lower class regions, though this does not mean that people living in economically empowered neighborhoods do not commit crime (Gottfredson, 1990)
It remains evident that the lower class remains most victimized, basing on the police frequent arrest of people due to criminal acts. This has seen many convict in this low class registering higher numbers as culprits of crime due to the frequency they found guilty. It is also seen that lower class youths normally from poor regions where opportunities are very rare, tend to adopt social norms from places or neighborhoods that include toughness and disobeying of authority therefore when this youths adopt this norms criminal acts may arise (Siegel, 2008)
Income differences normally caused by level of education, culture, race and gender, moreover poverty and lack of resources are also related to serious crimes in UK. Studies conducted shows that crime is normally committed by individuals from societies where there is a huge income difference. People in lower classes are likely to suffer psychologically due to the struggles they normally go through. On the other hand communities that do not access economic and social opportunities feel high level of frustration hence feeling that residents living in more affluent areas are favored. This frustration makes them turn to criminal behavior. Other factors like poor education, father’s occupation results in frequent crime rates in UK. When the father is earning less making it hard to provide to fully to his family, the members tend to find other ways of survival. Hence poverty alone cannot tell why an individual has involved him or herself in criminology if it was the main reason then, crime levels could have been very high than it is now (Lambert, 2008).
Dahrendorf (1987) argues that crime is classified according to how serious the crime is, felony is among crimes considered as a crime of high seriousness. More research conducted indicate that when attention is given to serious crimes only, example burglary and assault are considered it results that lower class youths are mainly the culprits. The class and crime relationship is controversially important for criminology theory, let as view an example of a crime that is related to social class it follows that economical and social factors i.e. poverty and neighborhoods that is disorganized course the raise of criminal behavior ( kubrin, 2007).
However, if class and economical conditions are not related to crime then it may concern particular individuals. This can be in relation to personal psychology and biological make up, than it is with the economical set ups. Some of the criminal acts displayed in UK includes homicide and assault, many a time the crime is mainly conducted among the lower class, with reports indicating that most of the victims in these situation normally suffer from psychological abnormalities. This includes high rate of anxiety among many other disorders that majorly promotes crime increment within the lower class social grouping (Bean, 2003).
According to Siegel (2008) most of the communities in UK that are not empowered economically or even luck clear social moral within their divide, are reportedly registering higher level of frustration that attracts criminal dealings. Individuals in this case face harsh conditions that convincingly leave them relatively deprived than those at higher level class. Occasionally when a person gets frustrated, their family relationship is disrupted and the youth violates the law creating a climate that will undermine adult supervision.
The rates of criminal dealings concerning the social or economical conditions proves otherwise, such as the poor being provided with economical opportunities through welfare and other mines like the public assistance has seen the drop in the criminal incidents at the lower class. It is often debated over issues to why poverty would turn individuals into chronic violent criminals the situations are varied which normally blends into categorizing the classes (Melville, 2006 ).
It is reported that harsh measures against felony crime committed in United States were put in place. Crime is too perpetrated at workplace, even though regulation put in place at workplace to promote equality among its members. Issues concerning discrimination are reported, this has to deal with income, employment rates and occupational range, the crime can include wage discrimination where women are segregated when they are offered lower positions than the male counterparts. Similarly, in to day’s youth gangs are not identified with just either of the social classes. The report on the UK department of Education estimates that about 54% of the gang members are among the nations under class, with further indication showing that luck of employment, poverty and frustrations are the real causes of the increase in criminal acts within the countries societies (Kendall, 2008).
Crime in the current UK’s society has received varied reactions with the perpetrators having distinct causes that trigger those acts. Action based on different circumstances have been reported with a bias result mentioning economical stress on the individual mostly associated in life experience being the main cause. On the other hand, psychological theories has disapproved the act being linked to economical power but in stead looked at deprived emotional and psychological factors being the major issues that are concerned in creating room for increased crime in the society.
Bibliography
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Grelling, R. (2007). Crime policy in America,: Laws institutions and programes. New york: George Doran Company.
Kendall, D. (2008). Sociology in our times : The essentials. New York, NY: Cengage Learning publishers.
kubrin, C. (2007).Understanding crime trends:workshop report. London: Sage publishers.
Lambert, A. (2008). Crime. New York, NY: Fuel publishers.
Melville, I. M. (2006). Theories of Crime. New York, NY: Tayler & Francis publishers.
Siegel, L. (2008). Sociology of Criminology. New York, NY: Cengage Learning publishers.
