Hello friends, in today’s article the Causes of Crime in Criminology | What are the root causes of crime in India? | Discuss the various causes of Crimes. If you are a lawyer, law student or preparing for judicial competitive examination, then it is important for you to know about the causes of various crimes prevalent in the society – 

Introduction (Causes of Crime) –

Crime is a universal problem, which exists in any form or quantity in every country, state and society. This is a continuous process which is directly related to human behavior. Just as it is natural for human behavior to change according to time and circumstances, in the same way the causes of crime also differ from one place (country) to another. may be different

While European countries adopted the subjective approach towards crime, America adopted the objective approach. Thus, it is impossible to study all the reasons related to crime at one place, hence in this article, the reasons for some such crimes have been described which are generally applicable in every country according to time and which are related to some community or ideology is based on.

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Causes of Crime –

From the point of view of study, the causes of crime can be divided into the following parts, which are as follows –

(i) Physical conditions –

This is also called personal reason, the famous criminologist Lombroso is considered to be its strong supporter. Lombroso was the first person to say that the physical and mental conditions of criminals are different from those of other normal people and are hereditary. By establishing a mutual relationship between crime and heredity, he gave birth to the concept of born criminal, which was named Theory of Criminality (Theory of Atavisam).

Many criminologists consider physical reasons as the cause of crime and have divided it into the following parts –

(a) Age – This is the first characteristic affecting crime which directly or indirectly affects the frequency and type of crime. Criminologist Burke is considered to be its supporter. According to him, people of 15 to 16 years of age commit ordinary crimes and people of 25 to 26 years of age commit crimes of serious nature.

Sexual crimes are more common in old age, Hasting has attributed this to the youth committing crimes out of a desire to be free from parental control. Apart from this, women generally commit less crimes than men of their same age.

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(b) Sex – Like age, gender also has a direct relation with crime, criminologists believe that men commit more crimes than women. The reason for this is the aggressive nature of men, whereas the nature of girls remains controlled due to being guided by their mothers, similarly social values ​​can also be a reason for their crimes not coming to light.

According to Pollock – Women commit special types of crimes like seduction, cheating and extortion, abortion, prostitution etc. Whereas the tendencies of embezzlement, homosexual sex etc. are more found in men. Pro. Smith also considers sexual perversion as a reason for crimes.

(c) Anatomical Conditions – A person’s physical structure, size, shape, shape etc. also become the causes of crime. In this regard, Lombroso’s theory states that criminals are different from non-criminals in their anatomy. People with normal and mild nature commit less crimes, whereas people with abnormal nature commit more crimes.

According to Goring’s research, English criminals were shorter in height and weight than non-English criminals, the reason for this being that they did not get government jobs due to their short height, not being selected in sports teams, it filled them with hatred towards the society and They are motivated to take revenge through crime.

Ugly, handicapped and dwarf people are considered worthy of contempt, hatred and ridicule in the society, due to which a feeling of frustration arises in them and they start getting inclined towards crime. Criminologist Goring is considered its supporter.

(d) Physical and Physiological Defects – Some criminologists also consider the mental condition of a person as the main reason for crime. People having symptoms of mental retardation, mental retardation, madness, inertia, madness, perverted mind etc. commit more crimes because they do not have the ability to understand the nature of the action and its consequences.

Similarly, physical deficiencies like blindness, deafness, lameness etc. many times also become the cause of crime. According to R.S. Bene, when the society keeps reacting to these people continuously, then these people respond to the reactions made towards them through crime.

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Jodard proved through tests that criminals generally suffer from mental weakness. They are also mentally retarded. Goring also tried to prove that criminals have low intelligence by testing the intelligence of various criminals.

Donald R. Taft, while explaining the close relationship between prudence and criminality, has said that people with dull intelligence are lazy and cowardly by nature. They do not have the ability to think and understand, that is why they commit crimes without considering the nature and consequences. Such persons commit less sexual crimes because they lack sexual desire.

Criminologist Sutherland gives more importance to the intensity of intelligence rather than stupidity for crime. According to him, intelligence is required more in some crimes, such as – fraud, forgery, criminal conspiracy etc. People with sharp intelligence can commit such crimes only by planning.

Studying criminals also reveals that contaminated food, disease and bad health also become causes of crime.

(ii) Family Conditions –

The second important reason for crime is family because family has a unique place in the formation of personality. It is the family that maintains a special and close relationship with the child till his growing age. He behaves according to the environment he gets in the family.

For this reason it has also been said that – Family is the first school of life, in which the foundation of the child’s future is laid. Because a child is neither born a criminal nor a non-criminal, if family members behave inappropriately then the children also follow them and start behaving in the same way.

According to Donald R.  Taft, family is not only the first but also the most homogeneous, integrated and intimate social school. It is through the love and trust of the parents that the child develops feelings of respect, loyalty, mutual love etc. If the child is deprived of these then there is definitely a possibility of him becoming anti-social.

The following family circumstances are considered more responsible for crime –

(a) Lack of family control

(b) disintegration of the family

(c) Neglect towards family members

(d) lack of companionship(e) emotional stress, etc.

According to Sutherland, children from the following families become criminals –

(a) A family whose environment is immoral, addictive and criminal

(b) Other members of the family should be criminals, have inappropriate behavior and drink alcohol.

(c) a family in which one or both of the parents is absent,

(d) The family which is uneducated, following bad practices, insensitive and disease-ridden

(e) In which there is step-motherly treatment of family members, neglect and jealousy etc. and which is extremely crowded,

(f) Due to mother working outside the home, unemployment, weak financial condition of the family etc., she starts moving towards criminal elements.

Thus, family and family environment and circumstances also play an important role in the cause of crime.

(iii) Social reasons –

Society and social conditions are also a major cause of crime. A person is a social being who spends his entire life living in society. In this way, he becomes like the environment he finds in the society. Many crimes in India arise due to evil practices, among which child marriage and dowry system are such evils whose harmful consequences we see every day.

Newly married women are tortured and treated cruelly for demanding dowry, due to which they are forced to commit suicide or if they do not get the desired dowry, they are killed by their mother-in-law, father-in-law and husband under abnormal circumstances Is murdered.

In the case of Omkar Singh vs. State of Rajasthan, the practice of Sati in the society has also been considered a crime. (1988 Rajasthan Law Magazine 1)

A person from a civilized and cultured society is also civilized and cultured. If the background of the society is criminal then its members will also have criminal tendencies. Along with this, sometimes the step-motherly and neglectful behavior of the society towards a person also makes him a criminal.

Many times a person is socially ostracized by the society on small issues, due to which frustrations arise in the person and he starts taking steps towards crime.

(iv) Economic Conditions –

There is a close relationship between economic condition and crime, as we know that poverty, lack of money, economic disparities etc. are the important causes of crime. That is, when the family is in financial crisis, then the family members start committing crimes like theft, prostitution, adultery.

Due to poor economic condition due to lack of employment, people commit suicide out of despair and sometimes women are forced to commit prostitution or such heinous crimes.

According to Bakaria, poverty, hunger etc. cause despair in a person i.e. joblessness and unemployment also give rise to many crimes and vices, due to this a person moves towards crimes like theft, vagrancy, prostitution, sexual exploitation, beggary, drug addiction etc.

Plato considered temptation to be the main cause of crime. Man’s greed, temptation, selfishness and desire to gain more money also give rise to crime, due to which a person commits crimes like theft, robbery, criminal breach of trust, deceit, fraud, smuggling, black marketing, adulteration, bribery etc. .

According to Aristotle, the desire for money or gold is the root cause of crimes and most of the crimes are not committed just to fulfill the needs but to get extra money or things without hard work.

(v) Political conditions –

There is no doubt that political reasons are also responsible for the crimes. At present, it has become a common belief that most of the criminals get the protection of politicians. Such people commit crimes without any hesitation and fearlessness, because the government and administration are under their influence.

Political persons provide protection to those who violate the law, which can be termed as political corruption. For their own benefit, the political system provides exemption from the government system for prostitution, gambling and drinking and their involvement in maintaining nexus with criminal elements is continuously increasing in order to strengthen their economic position and that of the organization.

At present the situation has become such that many criminals are sitting in power after winning elections from political parties and these people interfere in everything from law making to administration, due to which educated and talented unemployed youth are moving towards crime. |

Politicians have their own interests behind the protection of criminal elements because such criminals cooperate with politicians at the time of elections, like –

 (a) collecting funds in elections,

(b) To compel voters to vote by force and violence.

(c) Intimidating, threatening or intimidating voters to vote for one’s party.

(d) Capturing the booths and snatching away the ballot boxes from them.

(e) Including illegal, fraudulent voting, etc.

From time to time, the Election Commission also provides details of candidates who win elections and have criminal history. For these reasons, nowadays there is talk of criminalization of politics.

(vi) Psychological reasons –

Psychological cause also holds an important place in the causes of crime. Alfred Binet, who was a famous psychologist of France, after continuous experiments in his psychological laboratory, propounded the concepts of mental age and intelligence in relation to the problem of retardation found in people and his views on criminality. Discussed the effect.

After that, the research of Alfred Binet was done by American psychologist Prof. German (Prof. Jerman) went ahead, according to his opinion, mental age means that stage of the child when general intelligence develops in him and he gets the ability to understand the nature and consequences of work and this ability increases with age. It increases simultaneously, which is also called ‘intelligence quotient’.

The famous scientist Freud, while analyzing the tendency of criminality, has said that three major emotions always collide with each other in the human brain, which are called (a) Id, Ego and Super Ego. goes.

On the basis of these, Freud has concluded that –

(a) Id is responsible for the crime

(b) People whose ego and superego are weak often commit crimes,

(c) To avoid crime, it is necessary to control the ego i.e. material desires, and

(d) On not being able to do this, the person gets disappointed, he becomes victim of anger or shock which sometimes becomes the cause of suicide.

Dr. E.A. Houghton also did a psychological study of mentally disordered criminals and concluded that – according to almost all parameters, mentally disordered criminals are inferior to normal people. Such criminals should be kept away from the society. But scholar Sutherland does not agree with this idea.

The main causes of psychological crime are considered to be (a) emotional instability, (b) feeling of inferiority and (c) family environment.

According to psychologists, people who –

(i) are emotionally weak

(ii) Are economically poor and insecure

(ii) Always struggle for livelihood

(iv) Are useless and unemployed

(v) Suffer from family discord

(vi) Get disappointed in a love affair

(vii) Become victim of some untoward incident or

(vii) Are disappointed since childhood.

(vii) Due to other offences –

Some other reasons for crimes have also been considered, such as –

(a) pornography

(b) religious bond

(c) cultural conflict

(d) corrupt prison system

(e) Image of police and court

(f) co-education

(g) Moral and character decline

(h) Cinema, television, internet and obscene films etc.

Obscene literature has a bad effect on a person’s mind and brain and he soon becomes inclined towards crimes. Literature that increases sexual arousal gives rise to sexual crimes. Same is the situation with porn movies and TV. of channels. Co-education can also be held responsible for crimes to some extent.

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