Who is to blame for your criminal tendencies? Your parents, your teacher, your upbringing, your genetic make-up, your personality, society, poverty or you? It could be any one of these reasons, a few others or a multitude of justifications. As we all know life is never simple.
We all have a responsibility to act within the law but of course not all of us do so. Some people would balk at carrying out the vaguest criminal act whilst others would have no qualms about even the most vile crime. Just what creates these differences of attitude is complex and often no one single thing is what controls our criminal behaviour.
Upbringing.
If you are brought up to believe that the law is there to be broken and almost anything is fair game the odds are that this is how you will live your life.
Poverty.
Desperate times make for desperate measures and there are few of us that would never resort to crime given certain circumstances. However it would take a very desperate situation for many people to turn to crime and only a slight need for others.
Like father like son. Like mother like daughter.
These old adages have a ring of truth to them as we often are genetically designed in the mould of our parents.
Personality disorders.
Some personality disorders will leave a person acting in an inappropriate manner.
Individual responsibility.
Our Individual responsibility is to:-
- Bring our children up to be law abiding.
- Set them a good example by living an honest, crime, free life.
- Fight crime in any way that we can.
- Stand up and be counted when necessary.
- Instil good, traditional values in our children.
Shared responsibility.
Our shared responsibility is to:-
- Ensure that we protect what we value about our lifestyles and cultures.
- Create good environments to work and live in.
- Act responsibly.
- Have governments that are actively working to provide opportunities for future generations.
Shared responsibility versus individual responsibility.
When you think about it our shared and individual responsibilities overlap somewhat. However what is plain for all to see is that during times of hardship and poverty crime rates rise. When a country’s economy is stable and, perhaps, prospering crime rates tend to fall.
Governments need to be democratically elected so that people know that they have a say in parliament. Law enforcement officers should be answerable ao that they cannot set a bad example and also have to act within the law as well as uphold the letter of the law.
This said there are those that would be criminals no matter what. These are those that have a propensity for crime, yearn to walk on the wild side of life, are ignorant and maybe just have no values. Although we all have an individual responsibility if you are ignorant this concept will just be way over your head.
Our shared responsibility is to stand united against crime and criminals. We should not be condoning, or belittling, any crime, such as insurance fraud, because we do not see this as a criminal act. Crime is crime and we should let the law of the land decide on the appropriate course of action.
As citizen’s of the world it is up to everyone to accept responsibilty for their actions. If we want future generations to have a half decent world to live in we must make sure that our laws are:-
- Fair.
- Relevant.
- Realistic.
If everyone accepts that they have some responsibility for beating crime then we may stand a better chance of winning the battle against crime.
