Introduction
Human psychology determines a lot of concepts that are relative to how humans behave and how they adapt to different situations and personalities, all at once. This essay will discuss one mere concept of human psychology and that is criminal edgework. Moreover, this paper will also decide how criminal edgework is related to the continuous issues that arise within societies and how these issues cause people to turn towards different kinds of crimes that are fully associated with criminal edgework. This paper will also discuss what criminal edgework is and how its varying types differentiate themselves from one another, the kinds of examples that reflect appropriately towards a particular criminal edgework and how criminal edgework intends to influence a person into committing crimes that we not have committed otherwise. Moreover, the purpose of this essay is to briefly identify how criminal edgework works with a person’s characteristics and how criminal edgework actually defines a person through the various crime that he intends to commit. The purpose of this essay is also to negate what issues arise that lead a person to adapt criminal edgework and why these issues arise in the first place. The essay will also include arguments from the perspective of the Marxist concept as well as from the perspective of culture criminology. Lastly, the essay will argue that social issues such as boredom and monotonous lifestyles are the real cause of rising criminal edgework within societies.
What is criminal edgework?
Criminal edgework is a part of psychological forensics that was briefly outlines and mentioned by Thompson back in 1960. He firstly elaborated what edgework really is and described criminal edgework as something that tends to drive a person into exhilarating reforms and seduces him into conquering his own fears. In doing so, he gains the characteristics of going as far as he can towards his mental edge yet staying in control and not going over his own mental limits. This “edge” that has been discovered so overtly is what Thompson procured as edgework. He described that edgework is the point within a mind of every living person that, if tipped over, will cause the person to go insane. However, he also argued that if the person learned how to control himself by going to the very edge of his mental capacity but not going over it, that particular person would feel immense sensation in terms of risk, pleasure and crime alike. He also stated that in order to survive from insanity, that particular person must also learn how to get back from the edge rather than cross it . This form of mental psyche allows the person to achieve exhilaration and excitement to such an extent that it merely becomes impossible for the person not to get addicting with it . That defines edgework. Further on, Lyng theorized in 1990 that Edgework is something that allows a person to get excessive in his mental capacity and associate it with his numerous desires and unrivalled excitement levels. Therefore, he stated that when a society becomes too monotonous for a person or even if his life becomes monotonous to himself, he attempts things that are unusual and usually deliver adrenaline and excitement rather than more boredom . To achieve this sort of excitement and entertainment, the particular person attempts to dive into acts that are often deemed deviant in nature within a community or society and therefore, the term “criminal edgework” is conformed.
Examples of Criminal Edgework
There are several examples of criminal edgework, all of them related with one sort of crime or another within each given society. These crimes soon became apparent as Ferrell noted in 1995 that there had been a severe rise in the crime of urban graffiti, an activity which brought a lot of excitement, entertainment and was coupled with fear and risk within individuals. He stated that this deviant category could be related to criminal edgework as this form of deviant act was the outcome of a subtle and boring lifestyle within urban cities. He also stated that individuals who performed such acts wanted to experience risk up close and have fun watching people figure out or try to figure out who performed such a crime . In short, they took it as a challenge rather than as a crime. The social issue in this kind of example was lack of creativity within urban societies, strict norms and values that were only paid attention to when the weak came into the bad perspective, not when the rich were caught red-handed, an inferior justice system that favoured the elite rather than the poor of the city and therefore, initiated the form of rebellion within an individual mind .
In 2008, Halsey noticed criminal edgework establishing itself within the deviant acts of car chases as he saw an increase in car chases over the last decade and pointed out that this was a form and result of criminal edgework as it did not have any motif behind it in most cases. Most of the times, the car chases occurred when the convicted individual had not done a bizarre act. Halsey stated that the convicted individuals usually initiated car chases as they were apparent that one they flee a police scene, the police will attempt to catch them in one way or another, in most cases that way being car chases . Therefore, the individuals knew that they wouldn’t spend much time in jail even if they were caught and would deliberately initiate such car chases so as to have fun in their life for a limited period of time as Halsey pointed out that boredom was the main social issue that initiated this form of car chase excitement within individuals. Most of these individuals, who initiated car chases, were actually tired of living lives in a dull neighbourhood with a repetitive lifestyle that gave them no surprises or had nothing new to offer to them on the major front. Therefore, Halsey blames the social issues of no reengineering within a society and no change in lifestyles as the main cause in this form of criminal edgework .
Another example of criminal edgework came into notice over the years it was found that there was extensive white collar crime taking place among developed countries as well as more financial risk-taking in brokerage firms and stock exchanges in the same countries. This trend was first identified by Zwick and Dholakia back in 2004. They stated that white collar crimes showed a drastic rise and could be affiliated towards criminal edgework but they couldn’t possibly examine the social issues that would cause such criminal edgework, and therefore, they were dismissed in their research and not given much attention. A quick restudy by Smith in 2005 studied the same trends and patterns and came to the same conclusion with the same involvement of criminal edgework in this kind of behaviour . However, Smith came up with a social issue that could have caused this form of criminal edgework to take place within developed societies. He argued that white collar crime rose as people grew tired and alienated from their daily activities that brought no fun to them. Checking numerous files and cases at a time may be hectic but it still drives boredom into a person when they keep repeating their tasks on a daily basis. They eventually grow tired and decide to do something different and abuse their authority in a way that brings excitement to them. Therefore, they use their power to commit crimes that cannot be seen by the naked eye and often get away with such blisters in financial organizations as well as judicial organizations. Finally, their work was paid attention to just like Zwick and Dholakia were recognized instead of being dismisses. Wexler gave another cause to this trend in 2010 when he stated that boredom wasn’t the only social issue that saw a rise in white collar crime. He argued that the social issue of challenges was a major factor in the tedious rise of white collar crimes. He also insisted that white collar crimes were the result of people wanting to do challenging things and nothing could be more challenging in their eyes than committing white collar crimes and urging authorities to investigate such crimes . Not only did they take pleasure from watching authorities fail in their investigations, they also thought of themselves as motivated by such challenges, feeling the urge to commit more challenges in the future.
Theories that propelled the cause of criminal edgework
There are many theories from psychological backgrounds that could ascertain the level of becoming a viable explanation to the sudden rise of criminal edgework over the past decades. However, the one that fits most appropriately, keeping in mind the common social issues that caused criminal edgework in the above examples, is the Marxist concept of alienation. In this concept, it is stated that when a contemporary society becomes boring and meaningless to individuals of that certain society, it is almost inevitable that they develop edgework that brings them feelings of excitement, control and utmost importance as well as attention .
Another theory that related to criminal edgework in the above examples is the cultural criminology which states that when deviant acts themselves become boring, individuals look for more innovative acts of deviancy that would be able to cause more hysteria and problems to the society that such individuals exist in . It can be more specifically related to criminal edgework as it also tends to give them more motivation, feeling of accomplishing challenges as well as being able to control the society in from a small but strong perspective.
Conclusion
It is now evident how Marxist concept of alienation and cultural criminology relate to the enhancement and basis of criminal edgework and that boredom out of everyday life with a monotonous and repetitive routine becomes the main cause for the formation for criminal edgework. Therefore, it can also be said that unless societies change their concepts about lifestyles and bring some innovation into their cultures, criminal edgework will gain more momentum and will never reduce in strength.
References
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Wexler, C., 2013. Rogue rading as a White Collar Crime. In: M. Vadi & T. Vissak, eds. (Dis)honesty in Management: Manifestations and Consequences. s.l.:Emerald Group Publishing, pp. 149-154.
Zwick & Dholakia, 2008. In Defence of Autonomour Identity Building for Consumers: The Principle of Minimal Data Asymmetry. In: M. Hildebrandt & S. Gutwirth, eds. Profiling the European Citizen: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. s.l.:Springer Science & Business Media, pp. 180-181.
