Unfortunately, there are pieces of evidence suggesting that crime rates in the United States have increased significantly. Particularly, the overall violent crime indicator rose by +5.2% in 2020 (Grawert, 2022). At the moment, American society has to face a period of political, social, and economic reforms, the worsening of the criminogenic situation in the country, and the desire of criminal structures to integrate and gain a foothold in various spheres of life. In this context, internal affairs bodies are tasked with developing and implementing measures to counter crime effectively.
The performance of these tasks is related to the research and scientific knowledge of the patterns that manifest negative trends in crime. Their clarification in the theoretical plan is important for solving the problem of ensuring a gradual decrease in its level. In practical terms, this is necessary for the implementation of organizational and tactical measures to strengthen the fight against crimes and to improve and establish the cooperation of bodies that fight against them. This is also crucial for advancing the crime-combating institutions and enabling their activities through the use of scientifically based effective measures. The study will be dedicated to determining the reasons for the crime rate increase and providing possible ways to decrease them. The investigation will appeal to governmental statistics and reliable peer-reviewed materials, which will be a foundation for descriptive qualitative research.
Literature Review
Theoretical Background
The causes of crime are the totality of social phenomena and processes that, in certain circumstances, play the role of conditions, determine the existence of crime as a social phenomenon, and the presence of parts in its composition. From the above definition, it follows that the concept of the causes of crime is associated with the philosophical categories of causes, conditions, and determinants and also has different levels (Alkhaibari & Chung, 2017). Among the latter, it is necessary to single out the causes of all crime, its individual structural divisions, and single crimes.
The subjective causes of crime are based on the teachings of social psychology, which include the distortion of moral values and the legal consciousness of a person who commits offenses. The objective causes of crime are social crimes that do not depend on a particular subject, contradictions and economic fluctuations, and political unrest in society, which form difficulties and shortcomings for people, thereby giving rise to antisocial motivation and criminal behavior.
All causes of crime are divided into the following three groups: 1) individual or anthropological, lying in the very personality of the offender; 2) physical – the influence of nature; 3) social – the influence of the social environment. The former include sex, age, race, heredity, somatic (bodily), and mental, i.e., mental, characteristics of the offender. The second group includes climate, temperature, soil structure, etc. Social causes include wealth and poverty, housing, employment, education, political structure, etc.
The study of the causes of criminal behavior involves the definition of criteria for the latter. As the causes of crime, those social phenomena are associated with the regularity of the occurrence of crime (Alkhaibari & Chung, 2017). The causes of a particular crime are those factors that, compared with other factors involved in the interaction, create a higher likelihood of committing a crime by a specific person in a specific setting. Establishing the causes of a particular crime means identifying the factors that play the most active role in its genesis.
The extreme complexity, close interconnection, and interdependence of social factors that determine crime and individual crimes make it necessary to conclude that there is not just one but a plurality of causes of crime, individual criminal behavior. However, even in this case, the latter differs from other factors-conditions in their more active criminogenic role. Recognition of the plurality of causes of crime, in turn, implies a distinction in the causal complex of basic and additional, primary and derivative causes, taking into account their hierarchy in real social processes.
The causes of crime are systemic. The systemic approach deepens if it is connected with the historical one, allowing simultaneously to cover the methodological principles of systematicity and historicism of criminological research. Thus, it is possible to clearly trace the trends in the indicators of crime in the United States in retrospect, which will help to highlight the modern causes of the problem under study.
It is recognized that the concept of causality refers to the actual connection that exists between occurrences when one of these (the cause) results in another under specific circumstances (consequence). Adverse social circumstances are already widely accepted as the root cause of crime since they (conditions) breed it in the literature (cause). Another viewpoint contests this, contending that external factors cannot, by themselves, generate crime and cannot, hence, be its causes. They are only able to be a part of the crime or its cause. This viewpoint appears to be preferred in connection to the reasons for a specific crime because it cannot be carried out without the person’s own free will. This is demonstrated by the fact that not everyone chooses the route of crime when living in the same social environment (Alkhaibari & Chung, 2017). First of all, this applies to individuals who already had specific legal consciousness flaws as a result of past educational deficiencies.
Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the origin of criminal conduct is created over a lengthy period of time, often beginning in childhood, and not all at once or by a single set of circumstances. As a result, the term “complete cause of crime” is used in criminology to refer to all of the crime’s required prerequisites as well as the reasons in the strict sense.
The conditions of crime are a set of phenomena that in themselves cannot give rise to crime but serve as circumstances conducive to its emergence and existence. Crime conditions can be divided and defined as follows. The first is the accompanying conditions that form the general background of events and phenomena, the circumstances of place and time. Second, these are the necessary conditions without which the event could not have occurred. Third, these are sufficient conditions – a set of all necessary conditions.
Causes and conditions interact with each other and are an important factor in the emergence of crime. Factors acting as causes, without the presence of the necessary conditions, cannot be sufficient for the emergence of crime. In this context, the relationship between causes and conditions is called determinism.
Based on the foregoing, the following conclusion can be drawn. The content of the condition and its difference from the cause determines a phenomenon or process that, out of interconnection, does not give rise to a consequence. However, following the causes in a certain space and time and exerting influence on them ensure their certain development, which is necessary for the occurrence of the effect. Thus, the cause gives rise to the effect, and the condition only contributes to this, providing the possibility of the action of the cause. It is the interaction of causes and conditions that produces the effect. In the study of a cause-and-effect relationship, a given “cause-effect” link is singled out in an endless chain of causality.
By their nature, determinants can be divided into social and biological. The problem of the relationship between the social and the biological has not only theoretical and practical significance but also a methodological orientation. Modern science has proved that the biological in humans is only a prerequisite for social development (Alkhaibari & Chung, 2017). A person is formed in specific conditions of life, which ultimately have a decisive influence on his moral position and legal orientation.
It is crucial to shed light on the content side of the causes and conditions of crime. The content side of the causes and conditions of crime lies in the fact that the variety of their manifestations lies in the economic, political, social, spiritual, moral, socio-psychological, cultural, educational, organizational, and managerial spheres of society. Each of these aspects of public life has its own criminogenic consequences, which deserve independent study and consideration in the practice of combating crime.
Noting the dominant role of these spheres of social life in the causal complex of crime, one should consider not only their contradictory aspects that cause criminogenic consequences. It is necessary to take into account the whole gamut of other signs and characteristics of the negative aspects of social reality derived from them, which directly or indirectly affect crime.
Reasons for High Crime Rates
It is suggested that the modern development of crime in the US is determined by the following key trends that shape the nature of crime as a social phenomenon in modern society. These are the criminalization of consciousness due to deformations of legal culture, the breakdown of traditional social ties between people in the context of mass migration and social polarization of society, and a destructive perception of reality as a result of the destruction of the value system traditional for today’s society (Ross et al., 2021). Moreover, ethical pluralism complicates the moral assessment of criminal acts and creates a basis for justifying criminal behavior, which, in combination with problems of a social and socio-cultural nature (migration, identity crisis, etc.), becomes a direct cause of the criminalization of American society.
Regarding the socio-cultural aspects of crime as a social phenomenon, it can be defined as a certain reverse, “inverted” side of culture. Built on the principle of the eternal opposition of good and evil, the image of a parallel to the official world – the “shadow” world – makes it possible to emphasize the moral inconsistency of crime with the ideas of justice and public order as a whole. Although for a certain type of people and under the influence of the appropriate circumstances, the “criminal world” can seem attractive and even fair compared to state laws, especially if their observance is characterized by the presence of double standards.
The social anomie of American society created a favorable background for the development of crime in the country. It contributed to the criminalization of the consciousness of a certain part of the US population, which is expressed in the transformation of value and behavioral attitudes, the expansion of the boundaries of what is permissible. (Light et al., 2020). The criminalization of the law enforcement system, the state authorities, whose individual representatives perceive the worldview and way of life of the criminal environment, is a particularly worrying factor (Grawert, 2022). The spread of a criminalized system of values among them not only discredits the entire work of the law enforcement system and state power as a whole but also directly threatens the national security of the state. Instead of serving the state’s interests, the employees of authorities and law enforcement structures prioritize their own career growth and commercial gain.
Recently, criminologists have been paying more and more attention to the criminogenic impact of global processes. This problem has been noticeably updated in connection with the development of a new global financial crisis. But regardless of this, one cannot pay attention to the negative consequences associated with the process of economic globalization in general (Light et al., 2020). In fact, the entire international legal and institutional system has turned into fiction, covering up the growing world chaos. Under conditions of the latter, everything is decided by the power and influence of the elite, who secretly subordinated rules, laws, and even common sense to their will.
Crime Rate Decrease
Within the scope of the theme, interaction in the process of combating crime, as a type of human activity, is determined mainly by the needs of society and the goals arising from them. This activity depends on the presence in the objective reality of the factors that determine its implementation, its content, nature, and dynamics, as well as phenomena that reduce their effectiveness. Operational units designed to combat crimes are endowed with special powers and competence (Grawert, 2022). United by the unity of the main task – to combat crime, by the peculiarities of the organization of their activities, operative units, as subjects of this activity, are forced to constantly communicate with each other, solving certain tasks. The interaction of crime prevention subjects is a type of social interaction, as it is carried out in society and represents social relations that arise in connection with the organization of crime prevention in the state.
Cooperation in the process of fighting crime should be manifested in measures that are developed and implemented in the process of solving various types of crimes in relation to types of criminal behavior, different spheres of life, and social groups (Quednau, 2021). Being the result of contradictions in the development of society, crime consists of types of behavior that led to acts that arose as a result of social relations and, therefore, have a social nature and social causes.
Manifesting itself in various spheres of public life, it hinders the normal development of society and its internal structures and contributes to the deformation of social consciousness and the shift of its priorities, which, ultimately, can lead to a significant change in the existing social system or its collapse. The negative public assessment of crime and the danger of the consequences of its development determines the need for the most determined struggle to eradicate it (Grawert, 2022). For this purpose, a system of law enforcement agencies was created with the appropriate division of competence and powers. Social control over the activities of these bodies is carried out through the system of normative regulation of their activities.
Criminal law policy forms the legal framework for countering crime, distinguishing the criminal from the non-criminal, the criminally punishable from the morally reprehensible. The development of criminal-procedural, criminal-executive, and criminological (preventive) policy depends on what range of actions is declared criminal and what types and amounts of punishment are provided for such actions (Light et al., 2020). That is why shifting the emphasis to certain aspects of the fight against crime in the process of developing the criminal policy itself inevitably requires making appropriate adjustments in the implementation of other policy subsystems in the field of crime prevention.
However, it seems quite obvious that the improvement of legislation in the fight against crime cannot be achieved only by making changes to the regulatory acts of one subsystem. A comprehensive reconstruction of the norms of all relevant fields is required, based on a new concept of policy in the field of combating crime, to which any change in the law must correspond (Boman & Gallupe, 2020). The concept in the field of combating crime should correspond to the humanization of legislation in the fight against crime, and the practice of its application should meet world standards. The earliest possible development of such a concept, as well as the immediate implementation of its provisions, will ensure the effectiveness of the policy in the field of combating crime. This can be achieved through the consistent implementation of the principle of inevitability of responsibility for the committed crime.
Research Design
This will be qualitative research that aims to address two primary inquiries – the reasons why crime rates have increased in the United States and how these rates can be reduced. The study will have a descriptive character, which implies that the investigation will be conducted in the framework of the secondary data and reliable findings of the scholarly dimension.
In the initial stages of the research, it will be essential to retrieve and analyze statistical data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). It will be the main governmental source of numerical information about crime rates in the country. NIBRS will help to understand the main tendencies within the scope of the theme and correlate them with existing academic findings in the area.
In the section above, the scholarly field suggested the following aspects of the crime rate increase in the US. These are the criminalization of consciousness due to deformations of legal culture, the breakdown of traditional social ties between people in the context of mass migration and social polarization of society, and a destructive perception of reality as a result of the destruction of the value system traditional for today’s society. In order to correlate these assumptions with actual tendencies in crime rates, a meta-analysis will be conducted. Such a qualitative approach is a significant option in terms of analyzing information from multiple studies. It will allow one to pull together the results of statistics’ exploration and the scholarly dimension hypotheses on the related reasons. This will be a foundation for making empirical statements about some causes (reasons for crime rates increase) and effects (high crime rates), the importance of which was justified in the literature review section.
Thus, the research design will give the opportunity to address the primary inquiries of the study, allowing one to establish a relationship between the current tendencies in crime rate increase and the suggested reasons for it. Then, it will be important to explore proposed ways of reducing the mentioned crime rates, correlate them with the findings of the previous stages, and provide a number of recommendations. From the literature review, it was pre-assumed that the interaction of different institutions and individuals involved in the field of combating crime is a crucial element of developing a roadmap toward the decrease in crime rates.
Data Collection Strategy and Method of Analysis
The research will adhere to the best practices of secondary data collection. Here, it should be noted that NIBRS will be the main and only governmental source of statistical data. Such an approach will be used to avoid redundancy and inaccuracy in proving numerical information. The chosen platform is reliable and is among the most-referenced sources of statistics on crime rates in the United States. Then, findings only from peer-reviewed journals will be used to shed light on the reasons for crime rates increase, as well as gain information for a full-scale roadmap toward decreasing these rates.
Given that the topic covers a considerable number of studies and sources, the method of content analysis – conceptual analysis, particularly – seems appropriate for the research aims. A concept is selected for the discussion, and the study entails measuring and counting the idea’s prevalence. The primary aim is to look at the frequency of chosen words in the data. A sample of materials related to the topic will be selected to start a conceptual content analysis. The texts will then be classified into easily administrable content categories. Essentially, this is a selective reducing procedure. The researcher can focus on and code for particular terms or patterns that support the study problem by breaking the text into groups.
References
Alkhaibari, A. A., & Chung, P.-T. (2017). Cluster analysis for reducing city crime rates. IEEE Xplore. Web.
Boman, J.H., & Gallupe, O. (2020). COVID-19 changed crime? Crime rates in the United States during the pandemic. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 45(1), 537–545.
Grawert, A. (2022). Myths and realities: Understanding recent trends in violent crime. Brennan Center. Web.
Light, M. T., He, J., & Robey, J. P. (2020). Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas. PNAS, 117(51), 32340–32347.
Quednau, J. (2021). How are violent crime rates in U.S. cities affected by poverty? The Park Place Economist, 28(1). Web.
Ross, C. T., Winterhalder, B., & McElreath, R. (2021). Racial disparities in police use of deadly force against unarmed individuals persist after appropriately benchmarking shooting data on violent crime rates. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(3), 323–332.