Essay Sample on Crime in East Harlem: Exploring Causes and Impact

Introduction

Crime refers to an action or omission which constitutes an offense and is punishable by law. It is usually an unlawful or illegal activity that is punishable by the authority or people who are in charge (Schmalleger 1999). The main aim of this research is to use the theories and concepts of crime to explain the causes of criminality and its impact on the local community in East Harlem. Different approaches will be applied throughout the paper to try to explain the impact of crime and also relate it to real personal experiences as well as class lectures to show how effective they are.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

There are many causes of crime in East Harlem. One of the leading causes of crime is poverty. This is the leading cause of crime in the society, and it is usually because some people live in very harsh conditions such as poor housing and even lack of adequate food and as a result, they engage in crime so that they can satisfy their needs (Schmalleger 1999). In most cases as the level of poverty in society increase the level of crime also goes up at a significant rate. Another cause of crime is drug and substance abuse. The influence of drugs leads to crime as those addicted seek funds to buy these substances. In the society, most of the people abusing these drugs are mostly idle and have no work to provide them with money to buy these drugs, and therefore they result in crimes so that they can get the money. Parental neglect is also another major cause of crime in society. Parents who in most cases neglect their responsibilities end up seeing their children involved in crime as they have not been given the required advice. These children have in most cases been denied their basic needs such as food and shelter, and for them to get them, they engage in crime. Low esteem is another contributing factor to crimes as people of this kind tend to involve themselves in crime as they believe that no one trusts their capability. Therefore, they see crime as their only remedy which is not always true. The punishments we give to criminals may also cause crime as they become rebellious and therefore involve themselves in criminal activities.

The crimes have an impact on the local community in East Harlem. Crime affects people in different ways. This includes both physically and emotionally. Physically crime affects the community as it destructs the public property. In this case, the crime draws back the development of the community as it uses the resources of the community for purposes that they were not intended to be used for (Schmalleger 1999). Therefore, crime contributes towards poverty as the community cannot be provided with the necessary facilities such as health facilities. The crime also affects people emotionally. This is because some people tend to have fear inserted in them. People who have been affected by crime before are usually fearful of the crime to happen to them or those connected to them as they are fearful of the results the crime caused. Other impacts in the society may include grief, depression and even isolation. People affected by crime may react by isolating themselves from others while others tend to grief and others may end up being affected by stress or depression. These problems may be solved by different methods such as setting rules and regulations to be followed, creating the best norms to be followed, setting good examples to others and also guiding and educating those involved in crime about the effects of crime. This may help in ensuring that crimes are reduced in the future and therefore less harm in the local community.

Several theories explain why there is continued deviance and crime formations in the society for example in today's local communities such as East Harlem where severe impacts emerged from crime. In his book, In Search for Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, Phillippe Bourgois explains consequences of racism, society marginalization of low perceived individuals, crime instances that affects the society of East Harlem using examples by the characters used in the book. Research by Bourgois reveals how minority Puerto Ricans are marginalized from the leading community due to the barriers that exist and the violence in the streets. Drug dealing, ill education, huge employment gaps or low wages all lead to the trading of drugs in this society. Due to the struggle to succeed in the legal economy, they choose to be involved in the underground economy such as dealing with drugs (Bourgois 2003:2-3).

It could be said that there are no specific causes of crime. Crime changes across different cultures such that legal action in one country could be illegal in another, for example, alcohol consumption is legal in some countries but banned in some Islamic nations; thus, there is no single answer to the cause of crimes, and each crime proves to have its distinct purpose.

However, several theories exist trying to explain the real factors that lead one to continue being involved in crime. One approach that explains what may lead one to crime is;

The rational choice theory which says that people, in general, will choose to get into crime for self-interest and they are well aware that they can be caught and face charges but seem to weigh all these risks which may occur against the benefits they stand to enjoy. This appears to be the case in East Harlem as statistics show that there is no massive starvation. Residents here are well dressed, and in dual sound health because their underground businesses enable them to afford necessities which are essential for survival in the society. They, however, strive to get other income generating activities which prove to be criminal acts although they were partly able to survive without crime partly.

Social disorganization theory could be one of the leading causes of crime whereby the environment in which one dwells may socially or physically lead to the behavior of an individual (Bourgois 2003). Poorly structured society is likely to have enormous crime rates. Weak structures could include high levels of unemployment, no or poorly managed schools. For example, in East Harlem power and resources such as land are owned by large USA owned export enterprises. This makes many of the farmers to leave their property and look for wage labor jobs in other plantations. Primo, Candy, Ray, and Caesar are the main characters, and they help to show difficulties in social, economic areas. These difficulties couldn't be blamed on the people's actions but mainly but on more astronomical occurrences in the society's structures where they are part of it (Bourgois 2003). Depressed neighbors, drug addicts, expectant single mothers, and racism are all staged in the book. Political changes displace immigrants from Puerto Ricans out of their countries, and this led them to poverty, crimes and destructive actions.

Social disorganization theory could be termed as one of the main arguments that explain criminal behaviors in Bourgois' ethnography since there seem to be so many struggles in the inner American city (Bourgois 2003). Through the friendship Bourgois gained with the East Harlem resident among them drug dealers, he was able to learn their social structures and way of life. Political changes, poorly set structures in the city where relations were based on gender, age and ethnicity. This marginalization seems to be a significant cause of crimes in the society of East Harlem (Bourgois 2003). For example, when the Puerto Rican immigrates, they are welcomed with hostility from East Harlem, they were assaulted by American of Italian origin gangsters which led to wealthy East Harlem residents to leave.

Conclusion

A perfect example from personal experience is the motivation from the hostile environment to participate in petty crimes. This urge to get into crime mostly results from the strain to achieve something or social learning from society crimes are more prevalent. These petty crimes range from simple frauds and also cyber-crimes which are rather easy to be performed due to the continued rise in technological innovations.

References

Bourgois, P., 2003. In search of respect: Selling crack in El Barrio (Vol. 10). Cambridge University Press.

Schmalleger, F., 1999. Criminology today: an integrative introduction. Second edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.