We were all taught since the early stages of our education that the beginning of a worthwhile living is the confrontation with ourselves, to evade our inner demons and achieve a serene inner character. We are all inscribed with the belief that all felony or misconduct is the root of why a community is crumbling to pieces. Crime is often depicted in textbooks as sorts of deviant behavior that corrupts social order, and all criminal behaviors should be deservedly punished and stigmatized. Crime and the inability to control crime is a hence seen as a key indicator of the destruction of order within a societal system. That is all true, but in an alter perspective, crime can be the opposite of what it really is. It can be a catalyst of many civil qualities that are vital to a society’s development, and it symbolizes so much more than simply a rotting element within an integrated system.
The legal definition of crime is an act that violates the designated jurisprudence of an area, and hence the doer is or can be subjected to legal punishment. The violation of criminal laws is exactly what crime essentially means. The concept of crime often intervenes itself with the idea that the individual pursuit of private benefits through unconventional ways is deemed harmful, and will potentially disrupt the ongoing social order and harmony of the general public. What constitutes to a criminal act involves a variety of elements, but it mainly branches out into the two big categories of the Mens rea, and the Actus rea, which respectively represents the intention and overall physical gesture of crime. With these two combined together it creates a holistic definition of what criminal deviance is, they are what implies the utilitarian logic in crime. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, the major source of criminal data in the US, crime can be generalized into a number of categories. There are crimes against the person, otherwise known as violent crimes, which include murder, rape and aggravated assaults, and crimes against property, or property crimes, which include burglary and larceny-theft etc. There is also a third kind of crime, known as victimless crimes, including prostitution and illegal drug use, which is not typically grouped into the major crime indices. It is unarguable that all these types of crime inflict serious negative consequences for the people involved. The 2015 Federal Crime Report from the FBI shows a clear upward trend in both violent and property crimes in the United States, clearly hinting a new budding criminal culture in the country. But before jumping into conclusions, it is important for us to notice that this reflect only the raw numbers of the situation, they do not capture the entire picture.
In a sociological perspective, the wholesomeness of crime can be substantiated in a number of ways. From the functionalist view we follow the words of Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist who clarified the normality and necessity of crime. He believed that crime “is a normal aspect of society and crime itself serves a social function” (Law and Society, 2012). He considers crime to simply be deviant behavior that violates social norms, and it is under the adverse reactions by society toward these behaviors that law is hence created. Crime allows an effective amount of change within society, according to Durkheim it clarifies moral boundaries and affirm positive norms, encourages unity and promotes social change. When people are made aware of the inevitability of crime, it triggers a mass contemplation of whether the violated social norm is valid or not (Thompson, 2009). For instance, homosexual relationships were illegal in the US before 2004, and until that point being a homosexual was considered an immoral act that violates common norms. But the legalization of homosexuality was later made possible when the irrationality of criminalizing gay relationships was publicized. More and more people began to understand the problem of groundless accusations in our predominant social norms and legal systems, and it coherently transformed into motivation for social change. In the conflict theory perspective, crime can be seen as a safety valve. This means that if we allow the public to satisfy themselves with the freedom to exercise a certain amount of deviance, more stability and peace can be achieved (Hamlin, 2009). The legalization of prostitution, for example, can serve the function of a safety valve without threatening the institution of the family. Through collectively recognizing the negative impacts of crime can also pull people closer to each other, and can help us gain a sense of belonging. After the 2017 Manchester bombing incident there was a continuous uproar on the internet with people from all over the world expressing their empathy for the unfortunate victims. The world came together in the form of campaigns, hashtags and charity. With a common enemy, it allows us to achieve a new level of harmony and patriotism. In this case, crime serves as a welcome reminder that our darkest hours are always followed with moments of warmth and unity.
But these factors do not compensate for the overwhelmingly destructive impacts criminal acts can bring to society. The emphasis of this paper is on “a small degree” of crime, anything exceeding this quoted spectrum can still be a potential problem that will hinder the stabiliy of a community. Many of the societal crisis that countries suffer from nowadays root not only from the actively booming crime rates, but also from the ways people choose to cope with the situation. This is clearly reflected in the ongoing refugee crisis in between the borders of Venezuela and Colombia. Ever since 2010 when the Venezuelan economy started to crumble, millions of their citizens began to flee the country. Many of these people ended up migrating to the neighboring country of Colombia, where the borders are relatively easy to cross since they do not require any passports or documents. Unlike any other neighboring countries who constantly try to control the migrant population with new policies, such as increasing border security or requiring stamped visas, Colombia leaders and politicians continue to open their door to the floods of Venezuelans. Yet, this sense of solidarity did not last long when a slew of crimes that were allegedly committed by Venezuelan migrants emerged. According to the local police department, Q’pasa Cúcuta, there is a positive correlation between the constant growth of crime rates and the influx of migrants (Selle, 2017). But despite of this expanding skepticism toward Venezuelans, Colombia’s borders are still widely accessible. The failure of the Colombian government in reviewing this prevailing dilemma is only a perpetuation of the problems in Venezuela. The positive ideals of crime discussed above can hardly take place in this scenario since the trend is proven to be worsening progressively. To add on, an increase in crime rates can easily inflict a series of humanitarian and economic losses. The constant unrest in local communities could mean that more money needs to be put into security and prison management, and this money comes directly out of the pockets of local taxpayers. A peaking crime rate could also mean that the common code of moral values is no longer respected, people are prioritizing their own needs other than playing by the rules of society. This adds grist to the debate of how crime can eventually be prevented with an optimal outcome that can drive our society to advance in the long run.
But what if there is no crime at all? The incredible advances in modern day technology can heavily facilitate or even guarantee the control of crime regularity. The idea of a new form of society which is designed to be completely crime-free is known as the “surveillance state”, it specifically aims at breaking down systematic societal problems and crime rates by increasing surveillance in all areas (Pensador, 2012). In the US, the first step toward this techno-fascist idea has already been made when private companies began hoarding license-plate data from local drivers (G.W. Schulz, 2012). This can undoubtedly resolve the prominent crime issues. But within the bowels of this system we are sacrificing our democracy and freedom, we are submitting ourselves to a totalitarian and oppressive power. Imagine a society where there are no criminals at all, and every prostitute, drug dealer, and criminals of other victimless crimes are instantly arrested with heavy penalties. The existence of these people is what signifies the price of freedom, they are the reminder that we are still living in a free system. Maimonides, famed Jewish philosopher, once used an analogy to explain such situation. If you suppress your body’s inborn ability to fight off diseases by eating tons of medicine, you will die very quickly. If society forcefully oppresses the normality of crime, eventually it will only provoke the opposite of the desired outcome. Organized crime, for instance, was one of the most common form of deviance under the extreme prohibition of gambling, prostitution and drugs in the 1920s (Florien, 2009). Therefore, a small degree of crime plays an important role in guarding the privilege of our body politics and provide us room to express ourselves.
The controversy on the effects of crime can also be discussed under the context of how it justifies our legal systems and promotes job creation. The practicability of law towards crime shows how significant our legal system is in the maintenance of our society. The diversity of law and how it specifically tackles various criminal behaviors is physical proof of why the legal system is still extremely viable nowadays. But, in turn, this cannot be made possible without the prevalence of crime. Law would simply be a set of groundless rules that can hardly be applied to the public, and it would not be able to fully exercise its function. Similarly, crime is also a necessity when it comes to creating jobs. The police department, occupations in the legal sector, private security etc, all these are jobs upheld by the presence of crime. In every superhero movie, a well-developed antagonist is crucial in order to have an interesting and coherent storyline, that is the same in real life. Ironically crime is a problem that needs to be fixed, but its complete extermination could mean a certain level of losses as well.
The essential debate of crime is the debate of how an equilibrium can be achieved between the pursuit of societal peace in the long term, and the prevention of the underlying conditions of deviance. There is always a vital relationship between deep structural problems of our society and the rise and fall of crime rates. The idea that crime is destructive and should be eradicated is not wrong, but we also should not ignore the possibilities of positive change that are embedded within the pervasiveness of crime. The aforementioned positive aspects of crime bring us to a conclusion that crime is here to stay, but it depends on us to decide whether we should gain or lose from it. A small degree of crime is good for the society when we balance our desire for security with risk, and the call of liberty with the need of restraint. A prosperous society is a product of cultivation, and that is why crime is so important.