fueling crime

[snail]

Have you ever wondered what is really behind all this criminal mentality within the community that creates nothing but misery and suffering to the many decent civilized people that only wants to promote an ethical way of living towards others.But unfortunately the community are influenced by who controls the society and has the ability to change and alter what we view on the telly and computer that can lead to serious consequences later.

Here are a few of what l think are the reasons behind an attitude that can be kept at bay if the right diagnoses are handed out




The criminal activity that has been increasing over the years within the communities has not been addressing the real root to the causes of crime.The offenders will continue to prey upon the community until an ideal solution is in place to eradicate crime from our society.
It is always the victim that is punished more then the offender.The victim goes through mental trauma of a feeling of being raped when burgled.They have to pay out very expensive alarm system with complicated issues and attached to it are also the increased insurances,questioning that causes stress etc.While the criminal is laughing at the victim by getting away with what he has selfishly gained from the victim.

Many crimes do go unpunished,which leads to a thinking that crime does pay and will make the criminal more bolder in their ways,without showing any remorse towards their victims.When they know they can get away with it very lightly when caught,promotes a culture of gangs working together to commit even more serious criminal acts.

I am fed up to the eyes of their feeble excuses from the criminal and the do-gooders saying they commit criminal acts due to poverty and instability in their lives that makes them like this[what a load of stupid brain dead thinking]Even people with millions of pounds still commit evil acts and show no conscience what so ever towards their victims,because they get a sense of achievement from selfishly gaining something from the victim.The materialistic thinking and also the feeling of having a power over the victim does fuel their criminal attitudes to grow. Millions who are in poverty do not go out and resort to crime.
The real reason why they commit evil acts on the innocence is for one reason only.They chose to commit crime.Everything we do is a product of our thinking and if they decided to go down that road of crime.Then they have freely chosen this way of life,which comes from the inner self,not his circumstances.Humans have the free will to know what is right in life and to know what to avoid that can degenerate a community.

I believe people can change if they are given the right knowledge to mend their ways in life and to distance themselves from the bad thoughts that can nurture a growing behaviour of crime.Crime breeds crime and to stop this spiral of criminal acts is to have a willingness to adjust their ways towards being motivated in a complete different thinking pattern.

My solution would be to compensate the victim fully and to go through a course of hard work to gain the sense of value of what work can achieve mentally and physically.And a study of ethics to gain a strength of the inner self that can lead to a well being within.To understand the importance of what is consumed for the human body to stay healthy will promote a inner strength that can exert a power of right thinking.
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Nature is our home,the mind is our saviour

[freedhardwoods]

My mind kind of goes into neutral when I try to read long drawn out, floweredy pieces like this. I think you are saying to quit slapping criminals on the wrist and start punishing them. If so, I agree.
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Properly managing my garden using organic and synthetic methods for 30 years.

[hendi_alex]

I think that Kohlberg's moral stages of development can give some insight to the problem. At a young age children will only do what is right in order to get approval from a significant other person or they will do what is right simply to avoid punishment. Most individuals move forward to higher stages of development, where they do what is right just because that is the moral or right thing to do. At that point, the whole process is internally motivated and requires no reward other than the internal satisfaction of having done right. Many individuals get stuck at the lower stage of development or perhaps are even psychopathic and can't even judge the difference between right and wrong behavior. They only perceive what they want. These kinds of individuals are mostly motivated to do right based upon chances of being caught and chances of being punished. That IMO is why it is so importatant for society to have an impression that criminals will mostly be caught and prosecuted, and in a timely manner. Therefore, it is important to have an efficient judicial system, so that the perceived time between committing the crime and being punished is fairly short.

I don't believe that any amount of education or training will cause psychopathic individuals to do what is right. They are simply operating on a different level than those of us who operate within the framework of a strict code of ethics. Further I believe that there are significant numbers of these morally deficient kinds of individuals in our society, probably corresponding to the number of the criminals, both those that have been caught and those who continue to break the law or take advantage of others.

If my assumptions are true, then having an efficient system of law enforcement such that criminals believe that they will be caught in short order and that they will be convicted and sentenced promptly becomes essential if we are to decrease criminal behavior. It also suggests that efforts to rehabilitate these individuals will be mostly ineffective.
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Eclectic gardening style, drawing from 40 years of interest and experience. Mostly plant in raised beds and containers primarily using intensive gardening techniques.
Alex

[applestar]

[hendi_alex]

I agree with the point about education that the webmaster made earlier (post removed?) and also agree with your comments applestar. But you and the webmaster are speaking more about the world as it should be, and I'm speaking more about the world as it is. You and I both know that more and more children are amost raising themselves, especially as the gap between the wealthy and the poor widens. But even among the affluent, it seems that the parents role continues to diminish and other factors move in to occupy the void left by the parents who are less connected, less involved with their children.

In the world as it exists today, the best that can be done is to discourage the sociopaths who are motivated primarily by their self centered desires. That tendency is offset by one factor, the fear or risk of getting caught/punished. IMO treating the symptom is the only short tem recourse that society has, and that is to employ strategies that discourage crime and unethical behavior. The greatest deterrent IMO is achieved when the individual truly believes that he/she will get caught and will get punished. That is also one reason that certain kinds of crime are rampant in the U.S. The criminal knows that he/she probably won't get caught. He/she knows that the criminal justice system moves at a snails pace. The cimiminal knows that he/she will be back on the street in the blink of an eye. Maybe getting caught, maybe being prosecuted, maybe doing time are almost no deterrent at all.
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Eclectic gardening style, drawing from 40 years of interest and experience. Mostly plant in raised beds and containers primarily using intensive gardening techniques.
Alex

[vintagejuls]

So a criminal's mind and behavior is learned...? I don't think so. Not completely anyway. It's chemical, wiring with the stimilus of environment. Not all criminals are a product of busy parents and lack of education. Actually, the most heinous of criminals are intelligent with involved parents.

I think as long as there is the human race there will be those that cannot or will not be ethical and moral participants of society, unfortunately.
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~ Julie

Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well... Emerson

[Charlie MV]

This topic is giving me the yips. I'm getting all twitchy and wanting to go political.

YIP
Slap, DOWN CHARLIE
OW, YIP YIP
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Sometimes life is like herding cats.

[hendi_alex]

"So a criminal's mind and behavior is learned...?"

I think that "Oliver Twist" gives a good depiction of how criminal behavior can be learned. Current gang behavior, mostly in big cities definitely shows how criminal behavior can be taught and promoted as a valid lifestyle. But I don't think that anyone suggested that ALL criminal behavior is learned or can be affected by good parenting or education.

The sociopaths referenced in my post would be with us no matter what. But I would assume lots of crime, especially that related to drug use, stems from things like poor self esteem, effects of children raised in disfunctional families, in general, poor education. IMO much crime could be avoided with proper strategies and interventions for young developing children. The problem to me is that those kinds of efforts could only be associated with a more perfect society that may never exist. Further, we would still be stuck with the sociopaths and the criminally insane, most of whom are deterred only if the risk of being caught and punished is very high.
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Eclectic gardening style, drawing from 40 years of interest and experience. Mostly plant in raised beds and containers primarily using intensive gardening techniques.
Alex

[webmaster]

[hendi_alex]

Sad to say, but we have gang behavior even in the small town of Camden and in Columbia, and most likely in towns and cities throughout the state. I don't know that they are gangs like exist in the large cities. Perhaps these are more gang mimicks, picking up on some glamorized notion of a gang or gang behavior. But just within the past month or so we had a young person put away on a murder conviction. He killed another young man in the neighborhood simply as an initiation right. Thankfully this extreme level of violence is still fairly uncommon in our mostly rural state. The gang related problems increase exponentially in Columbia and the larger cities.

For sure I can not comment on the dynamics of gang behavior. But I can comment on what often happens to young people when there is a vacuum in the home, or in constructive activities within the community. That vacuum IMO is what sets the stage for children being recruited by gangs, drug dealers, or even the 'wrong' group of friends. I also can comment on learned behavior. I am convinced that much of the kind of behavior under discussion is learned, is taught. The young person is given a rationalization as to why the behavior is o.k. and then they are taught some skills, skills that will help him/her function within the particular group. They are then thrust into situations or actions that desensitize the 'student' from any moral conflict that initially takes place. Eventually, I would expect that a person becomes numb to the internal complaining of what most would call a conscience.

WRT your comments/distinction of lifestyle, or your objection to the use of the term, I think that you are just caught up in semantics there.
Here are a few definitions:

Random house college dictionary: A person's typical approach to living, including his moral attitudes, .....

Webster: typical way of life of individual group or culture

Answers.com: way of life that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or a group

At any rate I'll end my participation in this particular thread. either the thread or my specific comments seem to have hit at a raw nerve with the webmaster, to result in such a harsh toned reply. As well, the topic is leagues away from anthing gardening related.
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Eclectic gardening style, drawing from 40 years of interest and experience. Mostly plant in raised beds and containers primarily using intensive gardening techniques.
Alex

[Charlie MV]

Alex said:

"For sure I can not comment on the dynamics of gang behavior. But I can comment on what often happens to young people when there is a vacuum in the home, or in constructive activities within the community. That vacuum IMO is what sets the stage for children being recruited by gangs, drug dealers, or even the 'wrong' group of friends. I also can comment on learned behavior. I am convinced that much of the kind of behavior under discussion is learned, is taught. The young person is given a rationalization as to why the behavior is o.k. and then they are taught some skills, skills that will help him/her function within the particular group."

Throughout the 80's a little known Texas congressman named Charlie Wilson funnelled a few billion dollars of US money into Mujahideen resistance to the Russian invasion in Afghanistan. At the end of 1988 when the Soviets pulled out, the average age in Afghanistan was 14 years old. Along with the Soviets, the US pull out all money and aid to the wounded angry leftover children who were Afghanistan. What became of them? That Taliban filled the power vacuum in the struggling country. There is little difference in our ganga and the Taliban. Gangs are a banding together of youth in an atmosphere which is perceived as dangerous but most often actually is dangerous to them.

They make and follow their own rules because the rules the rest of us live by don't work in their environment. I see people who are outraged and horrified at the idea of paying children to stay in school. It is a valid tool to breaking the cycle of gang life. It's not the only tool but it is working. It also comes with a cheaper price tag than our current method of dealing with gangs, prison.
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Sometimes life is like herding cats.

[Diane]

I think Alex has made valid points. I know kids who although they aren't in gangs they do have drug problems that cause them to commit crimes to fund their lifestyle or way of life.
Strangely lots of these kids come from middle class, 'good', homes with two parents.
I wonder, are their parents involved in their lives? What makes these kids throw away their lives?
They don't see a future for themselves. Or at least one they can succeed in. So they drop out. Then drop in with like minded and behaved people. People who feel as they do.
Is it learned? Well, if their parents or older siblings are doing drugs at home. Then that is very possible. But not in all cases.

Charlie, great points. And still it comes down to no parents. A big problem in Africa too. You give a hungry kid food and then hand him a gun to keep that food coming.
Much more basic needs in those two countries.

Opportunity is lacking in many of these kids lives.
Also what they see in their own neighborhoods is what they think will become of them.
If they see good, they do good. Kids will model what they see. With opportunity playing a large part.

So I think if paying kids to go to school works, great.
As early as possible kids need to be taught that they need to make a living and shown many, many examples of jobs they could have and most importantly, HOW they can achieve what they want.
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Gardens are a little bit of heaven on earth.

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