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Causes of Crime
Susan Honeycutt
Salt Lake Community College

What causes people to commit crimes? Why do people insist on breaking the laws that
are put into place for a reason? These are a few questions that a lot of people of have probably
thought about. I have personally thought about these questions a lot. It turns out there are several
different causes of crime. There is not one specific thing that causes people to commit crimes, it
is usually a combination of many different factors. Causes of crime can vary from person to
person and from region to region. I am going to discuss the many different causes of crime.
In the book Criminal Justice in Action by Larry Gains and Roger Miller it discusses a
variety of theories that have different views about causes of crime. Choice theory is the first one
to be discussed. Choice theory states that those who commit crimes choose to do so. I agree with
choice theory, I think that criminals normally understand what they are doing and make a choice
to break the law. Positivism and classical criminology is also discussed within the book.
Classical criminology is based off of choice theory (Gains and Miller 2013). The book states
that classical theorist believe that criminals make rational choices. Whereas positivist theorist
believe that criminal behavior is predetermined by a few different factors which include
psychological, biological, and social forces that cannot be controlled by an individual. I think
that positivist theorist have a good point, and that there are a large number of criminals that have
psychological disorders, which could possibly lead them to commit crime. Gains and miller
continue to talk about the three main theories of social structure that help to explain crime.
The three theories of social structure that help to explain crime include social
disorganization theory, the strain theory, and cultural deviance theory (Gains and Miller 2013).
The disorganization theory believes that crime is a product of unfavorable conditions in certain
areas. While the strain theory states that a large number of people desire more wealth and
financial security and the strain of not being about to obtain these goals legally leads to criminal

behavior. I think the strain theory could help to explain white collar crime to an extent. Those
criminals are normally trying to gain wealth and financial security through illegal ways, because
the legal way is not working as well as they would like. The third theory, which is discussed by
Gains and Miller, is cultural deviance theory that argues people adapt to the values of the
subculture in which they belong to, and those values could be criminal ones. Cultural deviance is
a good example of gangs, the people who are members of a gain normally care only about the
gangs values, which are normally not good ones. Gains and Miller also talk about the three
branches of social process theory.
The three branches of social process theory are learning theory, control theory, and
labeling theory. The learning theory states that people learn to be criminals from their family and
peers (Gains and Miller 2013). The book states that the control theory argues that most people
are dissuaded from a life of criminal behavior because of the importance placed in the opinions
of family and peers. Finally the labeling theory states that by labeling a person as a thief or a
low life the person will become whatever she or he is labeled as (Gains and Miller 2013). I
think that all of these social process theories are valid, but only to some extent. I think the
theories could definitely be proven to be true for some criminals but not all of them.
Gains and Miller also talk about how life course criminology differs from the other
theories previously discussed. The five theories that were discussed all link criminal behavior to
factors that affect an individual after his or her personality has been developed. While life course
theories focus on behavioral patterns of childhood as predictors of future criminal behavior
(Gains and Miller 2013). The life course theory has an interesting view, it looks at childhood
behavior to see if an individual always demonstrated criminal behavior or not. I think the life
course criminology is a really good idea to try to determine the cause of crime. Those are all the

theories that Gains and Miller discuss about causes of crime. They also talk about the connection
between offenders and victims of crimes.
There is a surprisingly large connection between offenders and victims of crimes, which
is something that I have never thought about before until recently. Gains and Miller state that
individuals who are at risk of becoming criminal offenders are also at risk of becoming victims
of crimes. This could be because if an individual commits a crime against somebody then that
victim will in turn retaliate thus making the original offender a victim. Gains and Miller state that
law enforcement agencies have had to adjust strategies to account for the large percent of violent
crime victims who actually have criminal records themselves. There are other sources that have
some different and similar views about causes of crime.
In the article Causes of Crime - Explaining Crime, Physical Abnormalities,
Psychological Disorders, Social and Economic Factors, Broken Windows, Income and
Education, author unknown, it discusses some of the same issues as the book Criminal Justice
in Action. The article states that some reasons for committing a crime can include anger,
revenge, greed, pride, or jealously. The article also states that some criminals carefully plan
everything about their crime in advance to increase gain and decrease risk, this is a good
example of choice theory. The criminal makes a choice to commit a crime. Property crime is
usually planned and thought out. Other criminals get a large adrenaline rush when they carry out
a dangerous crime successfully, thus stating that some criminals are in it for the adrenaline rush.
The article also states that other criminals commit crimes on an impulse, usually out of rage or
fear, these crimes are normally violent. The article discusses that the desire for material gain can
lead to property crimes that include auto thefts, robberies, white-collar crimes, and burglaries.
This could also be classified as strain theory that was mentioned earlier, the strain to gain more

can cause crime to be committed. In the article Top 10 Causes of Crime author unknown, there
are a few similar ideas and theories as previously discussed.
The article has mostly different ideas and theories about the causes of crime though. I
will discuss the ten causes of crime from the article starting with number ten. The number 10
cause of crime according to the article is a victim of unfair ruling and the correction system. The
article states that people can be falsely accused of committing crimes and spend time in jail or
prison. The conditions in jails and prisons can often make worse criminals out of the prisoners,
this is something that I have never really thought about before. The number nine cause of crime
according to the article is drugs, something that is not very surprising to most people. The article
states that addicts of drugs are normally unable to support their habits and end up in a life of
crime to help fuel their habits. The article also states that there is also a large number of people
within the drug trade, who may not be users but lure other into the life of drugs and crime.
Number 8 cause of crime according to the article Top 10 Causes of Crime is depression and
other social and mental disorders. This is something that makes sense because people with
mental disorders sometimes do not fully understand the difference between right and wrong and
could commit several crimes without even realizing it or understanding it. Family conditions is
the number seven cause of crime as stated in the article. Number 6 is regionalism, which is
something very interesting that has never really crossed my mind. The article states that people
that harbor such regionalist feelings typically go to great lengths to commit crimes normally
against other communities.
The number five cause of crime stated by the article is something that most people have
heard about, it is TV violence. The article states that it is important for people to be able to draw
a clear line between what is real and what is not when it comes to TV. The article goes on to state

that the number four cause of crime is racism. The number three cause of crime according to the
article is politics. It states that politics is more related to crime on a larger and more heinous level
than anything else, which is something I found to be very surprising. Poverty is the number two
cause of crime as stated within the article. Which is not surprising because people in poverty
usually have to commit crimes, because they simply do not have enough money to pay for their
basic needs. Finally the number one main cause of crime according to the article is
overpopulation, which I have never thought of contribute to crime. The article states that as the
population increases it triggers a dynamo effect in society, which leads to more people being
created with frustration or resentment towards society. I found this article Top 10 Causes of
Crime to be interesting and surprising. Some of the causes were similar to the ones previously
discussed while other causes took me by surprise, but all of the causes were valid and made
sense.
In conclusion there is an almost countless number of causes of crime. There is a lot of
research done and theories tested to help determine why people insist on breaking the law. I
agree with most of the ideas and theories discussed. Causes of crime can vary from person to
person and from region to region. Therefore there is no one single cause of crime, there are
several different causes of crime, and they could be different for almost everyone.

References
Causes of Crime - Explaining Crime, Physical Abnormalities, Psychological Disorders,
Social and Economic Factors, Broken Windows, Income and Education. (2004, August 19).
Retrieved October 22, 2015.
Gaines, L., & Miller, R. (2013). Causes of Crime. In Criminal justice in action (Seventh
ed., pp. 34-61). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Top 10 Causes of Crime. (2012, May 28). Retrieved October 22, 2015, from
http://topyaps.com/top-10-causes-of-crime