Crime on the Rise: Can psychology help?

Crime is an expensive aspect of society and sucks a significant amount of public funds. Consistently government spends money on courts, police, probation services, and prisons. The worst part of it is the human costs that include pain, fear, and loss of life. As it pertains to the recent scenes of violent crimes that occurred in our Beautiful by Nature, Turks & Caicos Islands, I am optimistic that authorities are doing their very best to curb brutal crimes and my mind goes thus far as to assume that the established authorities are gathering every piece of intelligence to eradicate or at the very least decrease crime in our community. One thing I pray is that criminal psychology, which is an essential piece of the puzzle not overlooked.

Public perception of crimes

When violent crimes occur in any society, the tendency is set to blame people who may perceive to be accountable. For example, governments blame law enforcement for not doing enough. In reaction, law enforcement blames the government for not providing enough resources. The church blames the parents for not playing their parental roles in the household. In turn, the parents blame the church for not shepherding the congregants, especially the young people to keep moral and spiritual standards; the school system does not spare from that chain of critics. Then, society blames the criminals and those who supply firearms and ammunition.

In reality, who is to blame?

I believe we should come to a consensus that we must better understand the criminal mindset and work on it collectively since the blame does not help too much in solving crimes. Contrary to public opinion, firearms as dangerous as they can be, trigger the temptation to exercise a greater force that facilitates murders at a faster pace. But in reality, the mindset determines the course of action. This depicts the idea that if the firearms are taken away from the criminals when nothing is done to reprogram the mindset, criminals will use any other means to commit the intended crime.

In his famous book Tao Te Ching (the way of Life), Lao Tsu stated, “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

Literature review

In a criminal psychology class, a professor made a statement that shocked the students, particularly an Islander man like me who at that time had mere knowledge of crimes. He quoted (Durkheim, 1895) “as arguing that crime is an inevitable and normal aspect of social life. He pointed out that crime is inevitable in all societies, and that the crime rate was in fact higher in more advanced, industrial societies.” Thus, understanding criminology theories are key to determining why people turn to crime, and it is a step toward reducing crime rates and making society safer.

Takeaways from the Premier’s press conference

The minister of Education divulged the findings from the unfortunate incident of violent crime in Five Cays. She believes this phenomenon emanates from the social ill, including children raised in dysfunctional homes or uncaring families. Suppose the reliability and validity of data are proven. In that case, there are significant reasons to believe that we are not facing just a scene of random crimes, but a societal problem that needs to be addressed at the highest cleverness level. I believe psychologists, sociologists, and other critical thinkers have some answers.

After decades of research on criminal minds, irrefutable evidence suggests three major psychological theories that speak to this phenomenon: psychodynamic, behavioral, and cognitive. The psychodynamic theory focuses on a person’s early childhood experience and how it influences the likelihood of committing crimes. The behavioral approach emphasizes how the perception of the world influences behavior. And cognitive theory focuses on how people manifest their perceptions can lead to a life of crime.

In conclusion, while these psychological terms and theories will be developed in the next episode, let us all admit that crime is a deterrent to the socio-economic development of our community, and the “fierce urgency of now” is to uplift conversations about crime from the traditional level to the highest standard of collective and individual intelligence and knowledge. We are all concerned and must engage in the fight with clever approaches.

* Alces Dor is a psychologist