Paper Example on Crime and Covid-19: The Ugly Side of a Global Pandemic

When many hear the term covid-19, some of us do tremble from the pain that we have suffered in the wake of the virus. Some of us have ever running tears from the loss of their loved ones, but some do shiver in the memories of being victims of various criminal activities that have emerged as a result of the virus. Some of these crimes range from: commercial BNE’s, domestic violence, anti-Asian crimes, attack by police officers by covid-19 infected people, and stunt driving.

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These are crimes that have not been on the rise for many years, this being attributed to the presence of many organizations fighting such crimes like the domestic-based violence. Still, the covid-19 viruses have brought in a new ecosystem of which such crimes have found the best, if not perfect, conditions to thrive. People now being confined in their homes had been at first a good thing to spend quality time bus as they say too much of something is but poison. People start getting used to being around people, and that affection turns into boredom, resentment, and finally, anger. The small things that were fun start becoming irritating, and the best moments that could have been sent become their worst nightmare. Domestic violence has the highest number, and rising has caught the attention of criminologists trying to figure out why this is so and maybe even trying to find a solution to the problem (Mears, 2010, pg. 127).

Some of the People infected by the virus have lost hope, and they start to blame other people for their infections. These people who now live their lives as if they have nothing left to lose or take to arm and attack the same police who have been harassing them and disturbing them to protect them. These people who are filled with anger fond the perfect people to blame for their misery and attack the police.

Stunt driving has been on the rise these few months. It is an expected result of the virus; many people own a car or at least their families own cars. From the continuous stay at home and the frustrations that are ever-increasing, people have found just the perfect way of blowing off their steam. Fast driving or instead stunt driving is their way of maintaining their sanity in this challenging crime. These people are doing what they are doing as a response to this virus and mainly as a means of blowing off the steam and ending up committing crimes, either consciously or unconsciously (Burton, 2009, pg. 57).

The same people who have been living in peace before the virus have suddenly had a hit in their fellow countrymen's nationality and race. Hate crimes against the Asian have increased in the country with this belief that we are dealing with the 'Chinese virus' as it has been commonly referred to by the politicians of the very highest ranking (Noel, 2020, pg.97). People have now painted this image pf the Asians as the bringers of the virus and thus seen to hold them responsible for the deaths and the suffering that they are facing; therefore, they want to remove them from the country. All this has increased the hate crimes in the country.

When types of crimes are explored that are on the rise now, professionally asses that they are mainly crimes of which we can certainly tell that they are related to the mental being of the individual involved. People are doing this as an outlet for the frustration that covid-19 has unexpectedly brought them. The steam built inside them is burning up, and many of them take it out on their families, friends, police officers, or even fellow countrymen.

In this paper, the discussion will critically analyze the crimes that are on the rise with the focus of the few mentioned above and seriously dive into the causes of these crimes and the implications of the crimes on both victims and perpetrators. The starting point of the analysis will be to develop a theoretical model that explains why crime has risen in the wake of the coronavirus. The diagram below shows a conceptual model that will better explain the phenomenon and other theories, which will throw weight on this theoretical model diagram to provide further information and understanding.

There has been a spike in crime since the arrival of covid-19 in the world (Zizek, 2020, pg.102). Many countries around the world have recorded a high number of people dying during the covid-19 pandemic and especially spouses turning against each other. The best theoretical crime model to capture the increase of crime in this time is the conflict theory (Hagan et al., 2005, pg. 381). There are different ways in which this crime model can explain crime phenomena in these hard times. Deviant behaviors are those acts that do not go with the larger society and what people subscribe to (Warren, 2003, pg. 632). There have been many job losses around the world, with the United States leading in the numbers. Deviance is a social phenomenon, and it violates social norms to the extent of hurting other law-abiding citizens. It also involves the breaking of formal rules that have been enacted by the state. There has been an increase in defiance of state rules by citizens around the world during the coronavirus pandemic (Graham et al., 2020, pg. 237). Lockdown measures have been instituted to protect people against contracting the coronavirus. However, all over the globe, people have not been obeying the measure and go against the rules by all means.

There have been incidents where groups of people lock themselves in bars to drink without observing the rules that have been laid down by the state to curb the spread of covid-19 (Reno, 2020, pg. 35). In sociological settings, conflict theories emphasize the social inequalities in the societal context. The disparities in wealth and other factors have been magnified by the coronavirus pandemic (Walter-McCabe, 2020, pg. 111). By virtue, leaders should uphold the law so that citizens can emulate their good deeds. However, leaders break the law by not following the same guidelines that they want citizens to follow. The theory critiques social-political systems that deviate from the functionality of society. The conflict theories also touch on power differentials and are a stark contrast from historical approaches (Pieterse, 2010, pg. 223). It is a system of analyzing society at a macro level. The conflict theories assume that deviant behaviors are the behaviors that go against socially acceptable norms. The weakness of the theoretical model developed is that it majorly focuses on the specific crime other than put into consideration both the victim and the perpetrator. The theory assumes that the community should be at the forefront of ensuring there is obedience to the law. However, on the bright side, it meticulously covers the social structures and what entities need to work in tandem to ensure stability.

The conflict theory is based on assumptions such as the fundamental forces working in society and the primary forces in the nation that fuel crime (Agnew, 2014, pg. 32). The theories provide a road map to determine the causations of crime and an increase in criminal activities during the covid-19 pandemic. The coronavirus has destabilized social structures, and for society to work in tandem, all the social units must be stable. Many countries are experiencing economic downfalls, increased family feuds, and high political tension. The need to survive has made rational thinking a reserve for law-abiding citizens. There have been many murders in the world, with the highest casualties being women and children (Baskin, 2018, pg. 79). In some shocking cases, women have resorted to killing their children due to financial difficulties (Khan and Naushad, 2020, pg. 69). Given the importance of crime as a topic, it is worthwhile to reconsider views of the conflict from social exclusion. Social discrimination is considered a general term in such societies where there is class bias, and people compete with each other daily. The above explanation is necessary to understand the impact coronavirus has had on the increase in crime.

The diversification of the world requires unity and cohesion to alleviate others suffering from poverty due to coronavirus. At this point, it is crucial to understand the theoretical aspect of the phenomena because strain theory proposes that specific stressors or stresses are further expected to make a separate involvement in crime, like coronavirus. Cybercrimes and attacks have been profound, since most people are now working online, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from hackers. Some theories support and shed light on the increase in crime during these coronavirus times and the implication they have on the theoretical model developed in this paper. Approaches that have been developed in the previous year only dwell on specific happenings that fuel crime and is commonly known and existent over the years. The theoretical model presented touches all factors fueling crime and does not necessarily tie an individual to specific phenomena that have exited over the years.

End-to-End Integration is also known as sequential Integration. Here, the people formulating the theories (theorists) assume that a particular approach will come directly after or before each other when things such as the temporal ordering of casual factors are put in place (Bernard and Snipes, 1996, pg. 301). Sequential Integration is more useful or preferred because it proposes or brings out a particular component of the theories being brought together or merged. Assumptions associated with this specific theory is that learning of crime psychologically is based on standard or day to day learning, meaning the emphasis is put more on immediate factors that cause crime. This is contrary to other theories that tend to emphasize social structural elements, e.g., industrialization, that most professionals would concur are not necessarily directly implicated but are still very important.

The up-and-down or deductive method of Integration is another common way of bringing together two or more separated theories (Dewey, 2018, pg. 87). The deductive argument is often considered the most classic form of combining approaches. This is because it has been used and implemented often in the past development of criminological theory before it was considered an integration. It can have two forms, either a theoretical reduction or theoretical synthesis. The latter, ideal combination, is done through abstraction of more general assumptions from theories A and B, giving more space for the theories to be accommodated in another method C. The form is however uncommon and least used in social science as it takes time for one to achieve or taste success. On the other hand, the theoretical reduction is made after it becomes clear that theory A entails more general assumptions than that of B, this, in turn, means essential parts of theory B can be taken in the structure of theory A. This theory brings micro and macro levels of social analysis to determine the co-relation of social phenomena that arises from issues such as the coronavirus.

This integration method, however, has some limitations for example when one has two or three theories at a go, and the theories tend to focus more on immediate crime causes, it would be harder to combine as they will both claim they are working at the same time; hence they'll be competing against for being the main or primary source of criminal activities; thus this will make it unlikely for them to join or fuse as would have been anticipated (Reigeluth, 2018, pg. 93). Another weakness associated with this theory is whether underlying assumptions of the theories listed or put in place are compatible.

Side-by-Side Integration is also known as the horizontal integration model of crime causation (Stuart, 2013, pg.74). The most...