Crimes involving illegal immigrants, the mob, hate and youth are on the rise posing challenges to the authorities. This is because they perpetrate a great deal of crimes that involve assaults and murder. Illegal immigrants refer to those people who sneak up into the country illegally, the mob refers to organized criminal gangs, crimes of hate refer to criminal acts perpetrated towards vulnerable groups and youths in crime refers to the aspect of juveniles who participate in criminal acts. Therefore, the following paper is a criminal law paper explains the issues associated with criminal acts involving illegal immigrants, the mob, hate and youths.
Crimes involving illegal immigrants
There are a sizeable number of illegal aliens sneaking into the country illegally. It is believed that immigrants are more likely to get involved in crime as compared to other legal citizens. This may be backed up by the fact that there is a significant percentage of prisoners in the United States who are immigrants. According to Immigrants and Crime (2009), California State showed that 35% of the total people in this state are immigrants, and amongst the prisoners, there are about 17% of immigrants taken there due to crimes. Also, most of the people in prison are illiterate and are children of illegal immigrants. This shows that a majority of illegal immigrants are highly likely to get involved in crime.
There are different types of crimes that these people may get involved in, including identity theft (Chavez, 2005). This usually results from the need to find fake documents that will protect them from colluding with the authorities. They may do this through fake social security cards that consist of other people’s social security numbers. In other cases, illegal immigrants may be involved in drug trafficking. For example, there have been cases of drug cartels operated from Mexico and extended to the United States by illegal immigrants. The other crimes perpetrated by illegal immigrants are crimes associated with gang violence. These gags are involved In criminal activities such as transfer of illegal immigrants from one region to another. This issue escalates the criminal levels associated with illegal immigrants. Furthermore, illegal immigrants cause devastating effects on the environment where they carry out their illegal activities such as fishing and poaching.
Crimes involving the mob
Criminal groupings are posing a serious problem of organized crime in every region. These criminal groups usually engage the members in various criminal activities meant to assist them in attaining profits in terms of money. In some cases, the groups are politically motivated, and they perform various activities that may lead to war and death.
Terrorist groups are an example of criminal groups involved in organized crime (Jay, 2012). These groups are usually highly organized and also disciplined, and they carry out their activities and plans in secret. These people are usually hardliners who may force others to participate in their criminal activities. Terrorist groups usually consist of structured system composed of thousands of people in different parts of the world. All members are in constant communication and are answerable to various leaders in the structure. The other organized crime type is the drug cartels that exist in the Mexican region, and they are a serious threat to the United States. The United States Department of Justice has condemned these criminal groupings that deal with drugs because they pose a formidable threat and risk to America as a whole.
Violent crimes may involve assault and murder. People who participate in assaults may do so through coercion, rebellion and threats (Spapens, 2010). They usually assault their competitors or those they feel are against them, and the members of the gangs always feel that violence is a normal occurrence in their activities. Organized crime also includes murders and killings for revenge. The members may exercise their power through murderous actions in order to intimidate others or to reduce competition. These are crimes that can only be eliminated thorough strict laws against crimes involving the mob.
Crimes involving hate
These crimes are also known as bias-motivated crimes because; they are usually perpetrated by persons feeling that other people are not members of a certain group of people. The victims may be from a different race, religion, ethnic group, sex or sexual orientation (Cogan & Preston, 2001). The manner in which they perform these crimes could be through assault, injury, verbal abuse or even murder. There are various federal and local laws that are particularly strict on their prevention of crimes of hate. The worst impact of crimes of hate is the psychological effects they have on the victims and those around the victims. For example, people who are victims of hate crimes may have psychological disturbances and low self- esteem. The extent of this psychological damage depends on the degree of the perpetrated crimes (Cogan & Preston, 2001). If the crimes of hate are perpetrated to a certain group of people, the members of that group will always feel vulnerable and at risk of a recurring violence against them. They live in fear while wondering who could be the next target of the crimes. This brings in a lot of psychological torture on the targeted group. Apart from that group, other vulnerable groups may also start living in fear especially minority groups that feel vulnerable. Crimes of hate can be traced back in the history of the early people. For example, in the American history, there are people who perpetrated crimes of hate through lynching and burning of houses and churches belonging to various vulnerable groups.
Crimes involving the youth
Youth crimes are usually high in various regions across the world. These crimes consist of theft and riots in most cases. Also, violence amongst the youth continues to raise the figures of crime in America according to the Justice Department. Young people are joining small criminal gangs to perform crimes such as thefts and riots thus increasing crime rates (Benekos, Merlo & Puzzanchero, 2011). The crimes involving youth can be said to have gone up due to the few laws that govern against juvenile offenders. The laws are not usually strict enough, and the penalties are few and lenient. Also, parents are unable to take control over what happens to their children, making it easy for peer pressure to come in and make them get influenced by criminal gangs. Young people are also in a position to glamorize violence and crime while doing it for fun to adorn popular culture amongst the peers. The youth usually perform various random criminal activities, and it is usually hard to investigate some of these crimes. Youths also may get access to fire arms thus posing a worse threat to communities and police too. The youths have also been seen to turn extremist ideologies into crimes of violence (Benekos et al., 2011). This is because youths are easily influenced by violence, and can easily be used by other criminal gangs to perpetrate crimes in the region. Juvenile crimes are a challenge and a concern for policy makers because youths and all young people are supposed to be leaders in the society tomorrow. Any wrong turns will affect other generations in the future; therefore, prevention measures need to be taken into account in order to control youth crimes.
Conclusion
In criminal law, there are significant challenges posed by crimes involving illegal immigrants, the mob, crimes of hate and crimes perpetrated by youths. Illegal immigrants are highly likely seen to participate in acts of crime. The prison population in United States shows that a large percentage of inmates are immigrants. This means they are highly likely to get involved in crimes. Crimes involving are also on the rise, going by the organized crime rates. These groups operate as cartels to perpetrate assaults, injuries, drug trafficking, and murder. These groups may consist of extremists such as terrorist who perpetrate mass murders and massacres. The members may be distributed in different regions across the globe, thus making the issue even worse. The other challenging crime type is that of hate, which is usually perpetrated towards certain vulnerable individual or groups in a biased manner. Also, youths involved in crime pose a challenge to the authorities and juvenile cases seem to be on the rise mainly.
References
Benekos, P. J., Merlo, A. V., & Puzzanchera, C. M. (2011). Youth, race, and serious crime: examining trends and critiquing policy. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 13(2), 132-148
Chavez, L. (2005). What to do about immigration. Commentary, 99(3), 29.
Cogan, J. C., & Preston, C. (2001). Hate Crimes/Hate Crimes (Book Review). Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society, 26(3), 908.
Immigrants and Crime. (2009).
Jay, D. (2012). Organized Criminal Empires' New Bag of Tricks. (cover story). Claims, 60(9), 22-25.
Spapens, T. (2010). Macro Networks, Collectives, and Business Processes: An Integrated Approach to Organized Crime. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law & Criminal Justice, 18(2), 185-215.
