Essay Example on Crime: An Overview of Recent Cases Worldwide

Introduction

Crime remains the most significant challenge in the world. It is a complex sensation that changes across time and cultures. Crime is better defined based on a given country because various acts may seem legal in one country and be perceived as illegal in another country. There is no standard definition of the crime problem because each crime has its distinct definition as well as the causes. The paper will include an overview of the recent murder cases of various forms, with a criminological explanation based on the sociological theories, which are social learning, social disorganization, and strain theories. The theories purport that social interactions and relationships influence behavior.

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Murder is one of the monstrous crimes that an individual can commit. Murder, in many cases, has severe punishment. In simple terms, murder is the killing of another human being. Murder can be categorized in terms of degrees. First-degree murder includes poisoning, torturing, shooting, attempted terrorism, poisoning, and deliberate killing. The second degree of murder include intentionally killing without planning, firing of weapons into a crowd, or acts purposed to cause pain and results in death. Thirdly, felony, such as robbery, leaves the victim dead or driving while drunk and killing a pedestrian. In the United States, there is a variation of the law of murder based on the jurisdiction.

Causes of murder

In this study, the causes of crime will be based on a sociological perspective. The cause’s murder based on a sociological perspective is based on social structure factors or the arenas. The social structural factors include social disorganization and poverty, while the arenas include peer groups, schools, and family, which are majorly social institutions. Social learning theory is a theory that is a social, behavioral strategy that focuses on the reciprocal connection between various determinants such as environment, cognition, and behavior. Social learning theory posits that criminals engage in criminal activities or non-criminal practices basing on the social environment around them. It also points out that people are influenced by how other people model or reward behavior. According to this theory, criminal actions are copied or learned; hence it can be developed through the development of a social environment in which there is no normalization of criminal acts.

The theory of social learning

It is credited to Bandura. The main argument of this theory states that criminal behavior is learned. Bandura and Walter argue that criminals tend to learn their evil characters from close connections with their peers who are criminals ( Bandura & Walter, 1977). Bandura points out that exposure to violence through television and films tends to increase the level of interpersonal aggression in individuals. When a child is raised in a violent family, there are high chances that the child will lead a life full of violence in adulthood. For example, children who are raised in communities that are ever in conflict, war, and fights each time tend to grow up knowing that murdering is part of livelihood, and there is nothing wrong about it.

The society plays a significant role in shaping destructive behavior through failing to inhibit these acts and approving it. Christian religions much disapprove of murder. Regardless of this rule, some communities have norms, values, and beliefs that predispose the members to have high rates of violence. According to Akers 2011, Southerness was linked with higher rates of homicide.

This theory points out that people engage in crime as a result of reinforcement, which may be positive or negative. For positive reinforcement, the aspect of reward that criminals get after committing murderous acts such as terrorist attacks may influence other people who have not indulged in criminal acts to engage in it (Akers 2011). For instance, if a terrorist is rewarded after accomplishing an individual illegal mission, other people may be interested in gaining money through engaging in those criminal acts. Positive reinforcement of murder crime maybe informs of appraisal by other people of the cohort, and when one does not kill him or she is regarded as inferior. Hence for the need to show superiority, a person gets involved in the murder. At this point, the individual murdering has been reinforced negatively. Research shows that people who are reinforced for crime are likely to be involved in subsequent crime when they are in the same circumstance as the previous ones where they were reinforced.

Social learning theory

Theory entails a description of specific mechanisms through which people learn to be involved in criminal acts; they include modeling, beliefs, and differential reinforcement. Under modeling, the theory highlights that people tend to have an imitation of illegal models: people majorly imitate people's behavior when they are people they respect. In differential reinforcement, people living in areas where criminal acts such as murder, are reinforced, they may be easily convinced to engage in crime because they believe there is a reward after undertaking the assigned duty (Akers 2011). Reinforcement may be in terms of financial support or social status .under beliefs; different cultures have different ideas concerning criminal acts and tend to differ from one country to the other. Some criminal acts are not perceived as being bad in one nation but are perceived to be unlawful in another.

Several interviews conducted on serial killers showed that they were propelled to take part in murder acts because of poverty since their families were struggling to earn a living they opted to join these murder gangs to act as their source of income and livelihood. Any incidences of homicide reported in the USA have been propelled by resentment and anger built up over time, resulting in the men killing their spouse or even their caregivers. For example, at the age of 15, Kemper killed his grandparents and later his mother because of the anger he had developed against them (Rock, 2002.

When this theory is viewed from a sexual point of view, females tend to be involved in criminal murder acts because of domestic violence or anger about the sexual behaviors of their partners. Several cases have been reported in which women have killed their husbands through poisoning because they had a sexual affair out of wedlock. Some of them were initially prostitutes, and when the client does not comfort their terms and conditions, they opted to kill them as a form of revenge.

The area in which a person lives significantly influences involved in the crime. According to this theory, people engage in misconduct because of the associations that they have with other people majorly who are criminals. They become reinforced to engage in crime. Through these associations, they learn the beliefs that are suitable for wrongdoing and models to emulate on criminal grounds. Therefore, the pervasive murder a being something desirable and can be justified under certain circumstances (Akers 2011). Juveniles tend to engage in murder crime in the very way they learn to be involved in conforming actions through exposure and association with others. For example, youths who are ever watching action movies full of killing people as a way of revenge or protection may engage in murder activities in the normal situation based on what they have been exposed to, which is movies involving killings.

Strain theory

It is one of the sociological theories that points out that people engage in criminal activities because of strain or stress; that is, if a person is upset, he or she may engage in illegal activities majorly murder. Strain theory is accredited to sociologist Robert Merton who argues that society stresses the need for people to acquire power, wealth, and success (Froggio, 2007). These individuals engage in criminal activities as a method of reducing stress or escaping the strain. For example, in many cases of homicide recorded in the USA, it has been a result of marriage or friendship wrangles whereby the partners have a difference in their relationship, which builds up stress due to lack of counseling. This stress makes one of the partners to kill the other as a form of reducing the stress that he or she is going through because they tend to believe murdering the other person will be a solution to their problem.

Strain theory also posits that strain maybe as a result of failing to achieve various goals, either money or status in the community. The primary purpose of people in the United States is to get money and wealth. When these individuals who are educated tend to be unemployed, they involve themselves in other activities, which will generate income to them as a source of livelihood and income to better their standards of living even if they are illegal methods (Froggio, 2007). Some research argues that there are high crime rates among people who are dissatisfied with their monetary situation, which is higher among lower-class people. Thus criminals and delinquents have reported having involved themselves in crime as a form of generating income even if it is being sent on a murdering mission.

Research shows that there are higher murder rates among males than females. The murder recorder cases were a result of the woman's murder by their spouses, either current or former partners (Bohm & Haley, 2002). Also, robbery with violence has resulted in the majority of the people being murdered because when they are attacked by the criminals to take the properties which they have not worked for, the people attacked tend to defend themselves; as a result, they are killed. Also, when a criminal is sent on a mission and fails to accomplish the task he or she was sent to accomplish, their leaders may decide to kill them because they perceive them as failures.

Sociological theories argue that gang members do not murder because they are live, young, black, or white but because they are living in a structured set of social relationships where violence works through a series of linked people. It also points out that criminals are not born but made. Lack of proper correction of children results in antisocial values because they ignore the social rules. Sociologists like Emile Durkheim's main argument is that people live in social cohorts; hence, their behavior is influenced by such groups and social structure (Holmes &Holmes, 2001).

Sociological theorists argue that people get involved in murder acts because they don’t see the benefits of following social values and believe that through criminal acts such as murder, they may improve their financial status and social groups. They tend to perceive those involving themselves in criminal acts as benefiting more than those that follow the community's rules and regulations. Thus they become easily swayed to joining gang groups of murderers.

Social disorganization theory attempts to describe the causes of criminal acts, including murder. The approach is credited to Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay (Simpson & Groves, 1989). This theory's primary focus is on the community and the society as being the diverse social surroundings. This theory attempts to explain the difference in rates of crimes in the community. This theory points out that criminal activities such as murder are higher in specific communities as compared to others because of various factors; first, murder cases are more elevated in economically underprivileged societies (Simpson & Groves, 1989). Criminals in this society tend to engage themselves in this dubious act as a form of earning a living to better their lives.