What qualities drives criminals or crime?

All crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such. -Mahatma Gandhi

The chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime. -W. E. B. Du Bois

The background of criminals usually consists of suffering from income inequality, job inequality, education inequality; they are most likely to be from an area where there is a greater percentage of lower social class families. They are more than likely to be from a family with low social status, went to a school where the students educational success was left behind and done little for their students due to lack of resources, programs that can help their students strive for success.

As a child we all have different resources that will support us throughout our lives. When a child is born into a low social class family, it is more than likely that the child will attend a public school, because of the child’s family status. There are public schools that are surrounded by families that part of the low social class. When that’s the case the community itself has a hard time, paying taxes that will help the school provide opportunities and programs that are dedicated to helping students succeed. The community has a hard time paying taxes that will go towards their school because at the same time, the people of the community cannot sustain a full time job. In a video “Tale of Two Schools”, Kester Hodge says, “there are schools that does not have the financial resources to give their students what they need; for example, more teachers, school psychologists, and social workers…their school district does not have a lot of major businesses that can fund educational programs so they rely on the communities help to fund these programs, but the communities does not have the resources to help the school district either”.

However, if the child is from a high social class, there are considerably better options in terms of education for them to attend. The child can attend a public, charter, or even a private school. Focusing on the public school where there is a large percentage of families live area that have a high social status, it is more than likely that the public school or any other type school, can give their students more educational opportunities because the families that have a high social status, invest a lot in their child’s education. In the same video, Carol Burris states that like any other school they have to worry about their school budget but they are very lucky to have a community that supports their schools financially. This school is located in an area where families are in the high social class, and they take an interest on their children’s education. Also, where the school can get funding from families, as well as the nearby wealthy businesses in the area.

After these students become high school graduates, they are faced with two options: work or go to college. Since the student went to a poorly maintain school that did not give them opportunities to succeed, it’ll be hard for students to enter a college that only accepts students with a good GPA and good grades. Now let’s say that they did well in school, however they are from a low income family, it will be difficult to attend college while you have worry about college tuition due to lack of financial aid. Sure you can apply for scholarships and financial aid, but keep in mind that these scholarships or financial aid are not hand over to any student, there is also the fact that 85% of students attending a 4 year college apply for financial aid, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

At this point, the student is not able to go to college due to his/her education history, so the next thing the student he can do is work. With no education, except his/her High School Diploma, as well as no experience in any job, he/she is forced to work at a low level/income job where these workers are labeled as expandable workers. They are expandable workers because management can fire workers and can always get more workers at a cheaper pay rate, this is logic.

After a while, the student or now a worker, is having trouble keeping up with his/her financials such as rent, food, bills, etc. His/her current job is not quite working out, due to lack of income.Your landlord is badgering on you for the rent, you are running out food, bills come on the mail with the BIG RED CAPITALIZED LETTERS “PAST DUE”. He/she is now forced and looks for new ways to make income, with no options; he/she starts to see burglary, theft, robbery, distribution of controlled substances, anything that can provide income as a good choice. This is known as the Strain Theory, which helps one understand and make sense of the behavior a criminal possesses. According to Joe Pinkster, “poorer people perceive inequality; they feel less of a commitment to social norms and in turn come to view crime as more acceptable”. Also, Barry Latzer says something similar to Pinkster, he states “high or rising unemployment and poverty rates may be indicators of increasingly unequal opportunities, and that periods of sharply unequal opportunity are likely to produce more crime”. Even though these two articles are written in 2014, as a viewer who watches the TV Show Cops, the majority of arrestee tell their story to officers to why they did what they did, they explain their situations…their motives.

People want and wish for world peace, you want world peace? I suggest that those who respond to violence with violence (the whole “fight fire with fire” bit is getting really old), start changing your ways by responding to violence with positive vibes. It is better to show positive vibes rather than violence because it only creates more issues to solve or more violence. You know, I couldn’t find an image where it shows someone helping a criminal. Criminals do suffer from hardships, just like everyone else, difference is that some people make it out, others don’t survive and fall through the cracks. You want to end crime? Start funding those schools who are in need of assistance, to help or motivate students from low income families to go higher. Glad I was raised by a family that pushed me to my limits in school and slapped my hands for making gang signs.