Causes of Crime in Urban Areas

In a broad sense, crime is defined as any unlawful act which is punishable by law. It becomes very difficult to explain various attributes of crime owing to the fact that the term encompasses a wide range of activities, and differs from one area of jurisdiction to another. The scientific study of crimes committed by individuals is known as 'criminology'. It includes various aspects of crime, including its nature, extent and most important of all - its causes. In a broad sense, the causes of crime in urban areas are categorized into four groups - psychological causes, biological causes, economic causes and sociological causes.

Psychological Causes
Psychological factors have a crucial role to play when it comes to human activities, and crime is no exception. Criminologists believe that certain predispositions of an individual and his personality traits have a predominant role when it comes to his criminal behavior. These predispositions and personality traits rise from the occurrences in the surroundings, and the person's tendency to relate to these occurrences. If the opinion of Freudian psychologists on crime is taken into consideration one will realize that the balance in person's id, ego and super-ego is important for the person to live a normal life, and any imbalance in the same can result in unruly behavior on his part. Basically, the person's super-ego is important as it brings about the positive behavior that is demonstrated by him. A weak super-ego and a strong id increases a person's chances of resorting to crime, as he is least affected by the threat of punishment given by the society.

Biological Causes
When it comes to biological causes of criminal behavior demonstrated by an individual, the two factors which comes into play are genetics and neurological development of the individual. As far as the genetic factors are concerned, a person's tendency to resort to crime is attributed to the traits passed on from his parents. Studies about criminal tendencies of people have found that those children whose parents have a history of crime are more likely to demonstrate criminal behavior as they grow up. In terms of neurological development, certain abnormalities and chemical imbalances in brain tend to make the person more aggressive, and therefore more prone to heinous criminal activities.

Economic Causes
When we talk about the economic factors which make a person resort to violence or crime, the first thing that is likely to come to your mind is poverty, and this is true to a great extent. The desperation that comes with poverty eventually gives rise to anger, and this anger makes the person take some drastic measures, thus making him get involved in crime. Studies about the relationship between an individual's financial condition and his criminal behavior show that economic deprivation acts as a trigger factor for his criminal behavior. An individual who is deprived of the basic amenities, such as food and shelter, is more likely to resort to crime to end this deprivation. That, however, doesn't mean that only those people who are into poverty take to crime. If that was the case, the crime and poverty prevention measures implemented by the administration would have made the society crime free a long back. A large number of individuals take to crime to satiate their never-ending craving for money as well.

Sociological Causes
When we talk about the challenges of urbanization, we can't ignore the changing lifestyle of people in urban areas and this changing lifestyle does contribute to a person's criminal behavior. An individual's position in the society puts a significant bit of limitation on him, and the person resorts to crime in a bid to adapt to these very limitations. Other than the option of resorting to crime, the person also needs to have opportunities to learn how to commit crime - something which is provided by his surroundings. This works on the basis of Edwin Sutherland's differential association theory which states that a person learns the values, attitudes and techniques required for criminal behavior on interacting with others.

While things are not very different in rural areas, the intensity of certain factors differs out there. This difference can be attributed to the difference in urban and rural living to a significant extent. In rural areas, wherein violence is considered a measure of resolving disputes, cultural factors have a much more dominant role to play as compared to other factors which make a person take to crime in urban areas. Similarly, socio-economic factors such as poverty also come into picture when we talk about causes of crime in rural areas of the United States.