Many nations across the globe are witnessing a resurgence in crime, which is also becoming more violent. Despite years of research and plenty of theories, the roots of crime remain elusive. Being asked about possible reasons for this situation and possible solutions I can only speculate using my personal, very limited experience and partial data that I have come across.
One of the first things that comes to mind is inequality that correlates positively with different types of crime. It creates people who live in extremely precarious conditions – from the abject poverty to those who is one misfortune away from it. I have seen it first-hand, how a decent and law-abiding person got involved in stealing; or in former USSR nations, poor people can easily get involved in drug-related offences out of sheer necessity to put food on the table or pay their debts. To combat this problem, policymakers should amend labour-related laws so that being employed would automatically mean being financially sound. Additionally, progressive taxation has proven efficient in Scandinavian nations – their inequality rates are among the lowest in the world.
Another reason to climbing crime rate and rising violence might be that people cease to care about their neighbourhoods. Urban planning and new houses almost intentionally provide less and less spaces for people to spend time outside and interact with each other. What had once been a lively neighbourhood in my hometown, alive with people of different ages around the clock, is now a desolate parking lot with no one to see how my uncle’s car was stolen. To return observers on the streets, urban planning should be more focused on providing multifunctional public spaces throughout the cities. By multifunctional I mean such that would be appealing for different reasons to a variety of people. A great example of that is the Flow Park in Almaty: there are facilities for skaters neighbouring bouldering wall, circled with jogging tracks, surrounded by the prime picnic spots with trees and flowers and many more. And people are there around the clock, good, law-abiding citizens with children and interested in healthy lifestyle. And it makes it quite safe there.
To draw some conclusion, I believe that crime is mostly a consequence of inequality and abundance of crime opportunity. I believe that we could resolve this issue by combating inequality and creating more internal connections in the society and returning people on the streets.
and tell me, would the grade be different for academic?