If we want to rid the world of crime, we need to look at the root causes of delinquency

Jun 07, 2021 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
I am very fascinated with the intricacies of psychology. The fact that it is one of the sciences that cannot be fully unraveled or even understood, makes it more appealing to me. I am also drawn to philosophy and the contemporaneous nuisances that go with this field of study. Of course, I am also trained in Theology – the mother of all the sciences. However, what beckons my intimacy with these three schools of thought, whose premises are all academically elusive, is my innate desire for redemption and rehabilitation, both personally and communally.
Over the years of my study and work in the field of criminology, prison chaplaincy and ex-offender rehabilitation, I have discovered many things, both satisfying and troubling. For instance, I have found out that the people who commit the largest and more organized crimes are the least prosecuted. While the folks involved in crimes at the lower spectrum of the criminal curve fill the prisons and jails across the world, disproportionately.
I have also found out – and I believe it to be true – that if we can solve the causes of delinquency, we can rid the world of crime. Yet neither the definition for, nor the solution to, delinquency, has sufficiently been studied.
Another thing that I have come to realize through my research, is that most of the blue-collar (low-end) crimes are tangent and predicated to white collar (high-end) crimes. Let me explain. The criminals in the ghettos and hoods justify their criminality by comparing and contrasting their criminal behaviours to the behaviours of more ‘connected’ persons.
While I am very interested in the rehabilitation of the blue-collar criminals, I have a very wary eye on the white-collar criminals, because as a retired blue-collar criminal, I too realize that the judicial systems in most countries, favor white-collar criminals.
Ask any criminologist to define or explain the causative factors for crime and most will default to highlighting that poverty, drug addiction, truancy, environmental upbringing, mental challenges, and the likes, are the culprits. And while I don’t fault these professionals for their biased conclusions, I also don’t agree with them.
I believe that the number one causative factor for crime is a weak ego. And this is where my psychological aspirations kick in. Most crimes are initially committed to satisfy an egotistically driven lack or need. Most crimes have nothing to do with the crime itself.
E.g. When you go to a store and you put all your groceries on the convey belt and the cashier misses a pack of nuts. You do not refuse to tell the cashier that she missed that pack of nuts because you cannot afford to pay for it, or because you need it. There is something inside of you that triggers and immediately makes you justify why you should refuse to pay for that pack of nuts. And I have concluded that is as a result of one’s egotistical lack or need.
Again. You drive above the speed limit, no matter what the limit is. I guarantee you that unless you are a chronic procrastinator or you are in demand above the requirements of the President of the US, most of the times you are speeding have nothing to do with you being late for an appointment. You see that posted speed limit sign and something in you triggers and makes you justify why you should refuse to abide by that law. And I have concluded that that is as a result of some egotistical lack or need. So crime really has nothing to do with the act, or the violation of the act, but more about the satisfaction of an egotistically driven need.
Many times folks would advise someone, or reprimand someone, or condemn someone, hurt or harm someone, even maim or kill someone for engaging in an act that they themselves engage in. So they would commit a crime against another for doing something that they have justified and rational in their minds as a behavior that they could or should be engaged in. Which means that the crime is not the act but the result of some egotistical lack or need of the actor.
There are guys who would break into a home, beat and rob the occupants, then go on the block and drink and smoke, or gamble out all the money they abused other individuals and risked their lives and freedoms to acquire. Most blue-collar criminals have nothing to show for their oft-repeated criminal practices. Most “old-crooks” die in poverty.
So to default to the assumption that poverty, drug addiction, truancy, environmental upbringing and mental challenges are the causative factors of crime, is to look past the real reasons and hamstring ourselves from enacting approaches for the solution to crime. This sophomoric rationalization to the explanation and definition of crime – rather than explaining the phenomena – lends to the perpetuation of the phenomena.
It is largely believed and repeated, that thieves come from the ghettoes because poor people live in the ghettoes. Well, I am from the ghettoes and I can prove to you that only a small fraction of us in the ghettoes were thieves. The majority of the people in the ghettoes are poor however; the majority of the residents in any ghetto are not criminals.
If thieving and deviancy were unique to the ghettoes, why aren’t all the people in the ghettoes criminals, even thou most of them are poor? And more particularly, why are most of the crimes in any country perpetuated by people who are not poor? I submit that there are more white-collar crimes being
committed at any moment of any day, by folks whom society would never ascribe as poor. I would submit also that there are far more white-collar criminals than blue-collar criminals, in any country.
I am therefore concluding, that if there will be a reduction in crime, the agreed explanation for the causative factors have to change. There needs to be a multi-faceted approach to crime reduction.
1. There needs to be a large and sustained drive to prosecute white-collar criminals. This will send a signal to blue-collar criminals that they will not escape the law if they engage in criminal activities. 2. The youth in the ghettoes need to be told and reminded that being poor is not an automatic licence for them to engage in criminal behaviours and, 3. The wealthy must be told and reminded that they needn’t continue to engage in criminal behaviours to remain wealthy.
We need a mental reorientation as it pertains to deviancy and crime reduction and it begins by understanding and admitting that a criminal is a criminal, no matter what types of crimes they commit.
Yours truly,
Wendell Jeffrey

---

---