Crime and Globalization
As we have heard in the lecture, the commitment of crime is more often than not a deviant behaviour exhibited by the disadvantaged and marginalized. It is their way of expressing their unhappiness, their reminder to the world of their existence, and their mode of revenge. What is visible and apparent – their act of crime, is but a means to an end; the superficial symptom to the deep-rooted underlying problems. When we condemn these criminal actions and the state punishes the criminals, we are no where nearer to treating the problems than we are at creating new ones.
Punishment can serve as a deterrent to discourage criminal behaviours, but it does not address the causes of crime. Symptoms suppressed through punishment often resurface as other social problems. An example on the familial level is of a neglected child stealing to gain his parents’ concern, only to become estranged from his family when they scold and hit him without realizing the need to spend more time with him. The child may never steal again, but neither will he confide in his parents ever again. To the parents, they may have achieved their aim of deterring the child from theft. But to the child, not only has he not succeeded in gaining the affection he craves, he may even be convinced that his parents do not love him at all.
The ramifications of punishment are immense, and are further magnified at the state-level. When the state metes out punishment according to the severity of the crime, it is almost like state-sanctioned revenge. It does not address the grievances felt by the actors of crime that spurred their behaviour, and instead, invites greater angst amongst those who feel the same. What then follows is a vicious cycle of crime and punishment.
It can be argued that such deviant behaviour is an ineffective method of expression that often harms the society at large, and thus warrants some sort of punishment. However, not withstanding the fact that harmful behaviour ought to be discouraged, it must be noted that if the actors of these crime have had a better and more efficient way of expressing themselves, they probably would not have resorted to crime. Finding out the root causes of deviant behaviour may be time and resource consuming, but we should not just criminalize these acts, wait for the law to punish the actors and pretend that all problems would be solved if we can throw all of them into jail, or worse still, pretend that there is no problem at all.
The truth is, as with everything else, the problem usually starts small. By giving due attention to the slight symptoms and digging to find out the root causes, many crimes can be prevented. It could even be surprising how some problems could be solved when no solutions are devised, and are actually non-problems in the first place. Especially with globalization, where anything and everything can happen and evolve at a rapid pace, it is all the more important for us to pay attention to the small problems before they turn into huge societal ones.
