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Culturing Factors of People Committing Crime Again

According to a Pew Enquiry poll, violent and property crimes declined by 51% and 54%, respectively, between 1993 and 2018.

The motivations for criminal behavior vary. Crime rates in poverty-stricken areas are typically college, for example, considering people might resort to desperate measures when they believe they don't have the financial resources to survive. Other motivators for criminal activity might include revenge, the thrill of committing a crime, a mental illness, or an addiction.

A police officer takes a statement from a crime witness.

Criminal justice professionals must become familiar with all types of crimes and what motivates some to choose this lifestyle, besides every bit how to identify criminals, apprehend them, and bring them to justice. Continue reading to explore 7 central areas of crime, acquire how prevalent they are in the United States, and find how you tin can position yourself to make a positive impact in the criminal justice field.

Cyber crimes

The internet has given criminals a whole new way to exploit businesses and individuals for their ain personal proceeds. Cybercrime can be divers as criminal activities performed via a computer and the internet.

What makes cybercrime difficult to litigate is that internet applied science allows people to commit crimes from anywhere in the world. The hacker who drained your bank account could exist your next-door neighbour or someone on the opposite side of the world.

Though they happen in the digital globe, cybercrimes have real impact on people and the economy. A 2019 report past the Herjavec Group found that cybercrime could cost the global economic system upwards of $half-dozen trillion annually past 2021 — one-third of the U.S. gdp. The report calls cybercrime "the greatest threat to every visitor in the world," pointing to the data breaches suffered by Marriott, Yahoo, and Equifax, which exposed more than a billion people's data to scammers and hackers.

Direct deprival-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which flood a network and renders it unusable, likewise toll economies and business billions of dollars.

Types of cybercrime include:

  • Identity theft: Stealing important data related to a person, such as one's credit menu data, Social Security carte du jour, or driver's license. Ofttimes this data is misused to open new lines of credit, which the victim may take years to recover from.
  • Computer hacking>: Illegally entering computer systems to steal data, manipulate systems, or destroy hardware or software.
  • Fraud: Whatsoever form of financial criminal action performed through deceit.
  • Online predation: Deceiving children and others into unsolicited and illegal sexual encounters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the primary federal agency for dealing with online threats such as hacking, terrorism, identity theft, harassment, and similar crimes perpetrated on a big scale or affecting large groups of people. The FBI has 2 main priorities when information technology comes to cybercrime:

  • Computer and network intrusions: The FBI'south 56 field offices each accept cybercrime agents, also as analysts, who assistance them track down cyber criminals. This type of cybercrime can include bribery or extortion, as well every bit terrorism, identity fraud, and like illicit acts. The FBI uses proprietary software to stay ahead of criminals and coordinate with agencies in other countries to stop or prevent international crimes.
  • Ransomware: Ransomware is a reckoner virus or program that hackers use to infiltrate networks and lock downwardly information, demanding a ransom to unlock the files. Ransomware attacks have taken place in disquisitional industries such as educational activity, regime, healthcare, and finance, curbing access to information that powers crucial infrastructure, resulting in billions of dollars in losses. The FBI helps businesses fix and programme for such attacks, as well as develop contingency plans to avoid them.

White-neckband crimes

The abort of Bernie Madoff rocked the concern world in 2008. People couldn't believe that a homo who had built what was ostensibly 1 of the largest securities firms on Wall Street was running a Ponzi scheme, using $36 billion of investors' coin either to pay false dividends to other investors or make purchases for himself.

Some people lost their unabridged life savings to Madoff, and though authorities were able to recover some of the money, it was but a small percentage of the total investment. The government expects to pay back $4 billion from a fund information technology collected out of Madoff'south estate, according to CNN.

White-neckband crimes are those committed by business people and those in government. They typically involve financial matters, belongings, and fraud rather than threats, intimidation, or physical violence.

Common types of white-collar crimes include embezzlement, theft from ane's place of employment; depository financial institution fraud, the use of counterfeit checks or simulated identification to withdraw money; and healthcare fraud, when doctors and other healthcare professionals take reward of insurance systems to neb for unnecessary or fabricated procedures and medications to obtain increased insurance payouts.

The FBI has several focus areas when it comes to white-collar crimes, as well equally some programs to apprehend white-collar criminals. Those programs include asset forfeiture, where the FBI tin can freeze bank accounts or even seize the finances of those under investigation for serious crimes, ensuring they don't flee the country or spend their coin earlier the authorities can recover it.

The FBI also investigates the post-obit crimes:

  • Money laundering: This is when criminals who obtain money through illegal means endeavour to get in seem like that money has come up from legitimate sources, turning "dirty" money into "clean" money.
  • Mortgage fraud: This blazon of crime is often committed by industry insiders who use their cognition of the housing market for their ain personal gain or by those who use illegal actions to represent themselves as the possessor or buyer of a house.
  • Intellectual property theft and piracy: Since the rise of programs such as Napster and Kazaa, numerous peer-to-peer networks have allowed people to download and share music, movies, and other property without permission from the artists.

Organized crimes

There might not be any crime category that's more than glorified than organized criminal offense. Television series such equally Breaking Bad and The Sopranos make organized crime wait glamorous, dramatic, and appealing to those drawn to power and coin.

In reality, organized crime is a major international issue, causing economic instability, violence, and public safety issues. With some organized crime syndicates controlling large amounts of money and ability, many groups have gotten meliorate at concealing their activities and making it difficult for government to eliminate their expansive criminal networks.

This type of crime is not limited to one area of the world. The yakuza are a well-known Japanese crime syndicate, and the Colombian cartels run by Pablo Escobar in the 1970s and 1980s too gained widespread notoriety. On its website, the FBI notes that it has programs to respond to threats from national and transnational organized offense groups, including criminal organizations based in North and Due south America, Africa, the Middle Eastward, Europe, and Asia.

In 1970, Congress passed the Organized Law-breaking Control Deed, which gave the federal government more power to investigate and prosecute criminal organizations, allowing it to utilize one thousand juries to investigate law-breaking rings that operate over multiple jurisdictions.

Title Ix of that legislation created the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which allows the government to arrest anyone who has committed "at to the lowest degree ii acts of racketeering activity" in a x-year menstruation.

Racketeering acts are role of a "racket," an organized criminal venture that involves illegal acts to course an illegitimate business or income stream, such equally drug sales and prostitution. Other examples include:

  • Blackmail/sports blackmail
  • Obstacle of justice
  • Kidnapping
  • Interstate shipment theft
  • Extortion
  • Human trafficking

Trigger-happy crimes

Over the final quarter-century, tearing crime rates accept declined across the U.Southward. According to the well-nigh contempo FBI data, vehement crimes barbarous nine% from 2009 to 2018, with 1.ii meg offenses occurring in 2018. That's nigh 368.ix violent crimes for every 100,000 people — xiv% lower than the 2009 statistics.

The FBI tracks four types of fierce crimes:

  • Murder: The taking of another human life can exist either murder or manslaughter, though the latter has a connotation of negligence. Murder requires intent. At that place is too felony murder, which is a death that results from the deportment of some other criminal offense, such equally a burglary. The FBI reported an estimated 16,214 murders occurred in the Us in 2018, a 14.5% subtract from 2014 just a five.3% increase from 2009. Nearly one-half of all murders in the U.Southward. (46.ii%) took place in the S, 22% in the Midwest, 19.9% in the West, and 11.9% in the Northeast.
  • Rape: While overall vehement crime is downwards, the rape rate has risen 18% in the concluding vi years. Still, this may partially result from the fact that the FBI redefined rape in 2013, removing the word "forcible" from the definition and expanding it to include a much wider range of activities, all of which include nonconsensual acts performed by 1 person on another. The FBI counted an estimated 139,380 instances of rape reported to police force enforcement in 2018, just information technology'south documented that many victims do non written report their crimes for fear of retribution or not being believed.
  • Robbery: Robbery is the combination of violence and theft, which can involve intimidation or fearfulness instead of actual violence. The FBI reported that an estimated 282,061 robberies took place in the United States in 2018. Robberies can happen anywhere: on a street or highway (36.nine%), at a commercial location (16%), someone's residence (15.9%), a convenience store (6.nine%), gas or service stations (3.1%), banks (ane.6%), or other locations (19.6%).
  • Aggravated assault: Aggravated assault requires an intent to cause severe actual injury, ofttimes accompanied with a weapon. Even the display of a weapon such every bit a knife or gun can be considered aggravated assault because of the threat of serious harm. Aggravated assault during the case of a larceny-theft qualifies as robbery. The FBI reported that an estimated 807,410 aggravated assaults occurred in the U.S. in 2018, only a 0.six% decrease from 2009.

Sexual practice crimes

Order has come a long manner in the final half-century with respect to sex crimes. Prosecution rates are climbing, and the treatment of victims is slowly improving. Sex crimes brand headlines all too oft, detailing crimes wherein people are taken advantage of in painful and violent means. The FBI does not keep specific data on all sex activity crimes, instead focusing but on rape, which it groups with other trigger-happy crimes.

The cistron that distinguishes sex crimes is consent. Sexual crimes occur when in that location is nonconsensual activity between individuals. Sex crimes include inappropriate sexual touching, harassment, and sending unsolicited sexual photographs or media.

Forced sexual acts are rape, and sexual practice with people who are too young to consent legally (generally significant nether the historic period of 18) is statutory rape. There are other forms of sex crimes, including revenge porn — the posting of nude photographs online as a grade of bribery or extortion — and elder abuse, which can happen in nursing homes or in-home care.

A major evolution in the manner American club views sex crimes came with the growing prominence of the #MeToo movement in the latter half of the 2010s.

Though prosecutors had exposed and convicted people in ability of sexual attack, rape, and other similar crimes before, when victims of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein came out publicly, it gave the move momentum. The public plea to believe victims of sexual assault when they come forward with their stories helped many women and men betrayal people in power who had taken advantage of them.

Hate crimes

On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof walked into an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina, and opened fire, killing nine people and wounding ane other. Later on a manhunt involving local and federal law enforcement agencies, Roof was captured and taken into FBI custody. He confessed to federal agents that he committed the shooting in hopes of sparking a race war.

As much as we wish this was an isolated incident, the facts show a disturbing trend, with similar detest-motivated shootings and attacks targeting people of a particular race, ethnicity, gender, or orientation. Such attacks accept taken place in El Paso, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Isla Vista, California; and many other cities beyond the land and earth.

Co-ordinate to a New York Times report based on FBI data, racially motivated bias attacks and hate crimes reached a sixteen-year high in 2018, with a detail rise in cases confronting Latinos, while attacks on Muslim-Americans have witnessed a noticeable decrease.

The FBI investigates hundreds of cases involving detest crimes or bias attacks every year. Through partnerships with local constabulary enforcement, the utilize of advanced tracking applied science and other resources at their disposal, they work to observe and prevent incidents through investigation activities, training initiatives, public outreach, and partnerships with community groups.

Property crimes

Holding crimes affect an individual, concern, or regime's belongings, including places of residence, places of work, or personal holding. Property crimes practise not include violence or a threat of violence, though violent crimes tin can occur during the execution of belongings crimes.

More than vii.nineteen million belongings crimes were committed in the U.s. in 2018, co-ordinate to the FBI. That represented a 6.3% drib from 2017 and a 22.ix% drop in total belongings crimes compared with 2009. In total, the rate of property offense witnessed a 27.7% drib from 2009 to 2018, when at that place were 2,200 property crimes per 100,000 people. Nevertheless, these crimes notwithstanding had a profound consequence, with an estimated $sixteen.4 billion in losses.

The FBI keeps statistics on the following four types of holding law-breaking:

  • Larceny-theft: The most common type of holding criminal offense, constituting 72.5% of all holding crimes in 2018, larceny-theft is the unlawful removal of holding. This includes shoplifting, pickpocketing, bike theft, and attempts at such offenses, which all come without violence or the threat of violence. In that location were five.2 million larceny-thefts in 2018, with an average belongings value of $1,153.
  • Burglary: The FBI defines burglary as the "unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft." Burglary does non require an element of forcefulness; someone who opens an unlocked door into a house and commits theft has still committed a burglary. The FBI reports that in that location were one.two meg burglaries in 2018, causing an estimated $three.4 billion in property losses, or $2,799 per burglary.
  • Motor vehicle theft: This entails the theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle, though it's express to those that travel on roads, including cars, trucks, motorcycles, sport utility vehicles, ATVs, and snowmobiles. It does not include farm equipment, airplanes, construction equipment, or any type of watercraft.
  • Arson: The FBI defines arson as "the burning or endeavour to burn down whatsoever house, public building, habitation, motor vehicle or shipping, personal property, etc." The FBI, which includes only confirmed cases of arson in its data, reported that 36,127 arsons were committed in 2018. More than 43% of arson cases targeted structures, 23.8% targeted mobile property, and other types of belongings (crops, fences, etc.) accounted for 33.1%.

Learn more about stopping crime with Maryville University

Criminal scientific discipline is a challenging field. There's no single motive for why people break the law or a way to predict who might practise something to put themselves or others at risk. The more y'all sympathise unlike crimes, why laws exist, and criminal offence prevention efforts and tactics, the better you lot can create a civilization of condom in your community.

Safety at the town, city, land, and national levels is a collective effort among criminal justice organizations across the country, from small-boondocks sheriff'southward departments to the FBI.

Agreement types of crimes is just one piece of reducing the overall offense charge per unit. All those who work in the criminal justice world — from police and federal agents to lawyers, judges, and prison workers — tin do good from an education that introduces them to the breadth of the criminal justice organisation through courses in criminological theory, corrections in guild, and more.

Explore how Maryville University'southward online Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice tin equip you lot with the practical skills and knowledge necessary to enter the criminal justice field.

Recommended Readings

Futurity of Cybersecurity: Threats, Tools, and Technologies

How Criminal Justice Professionals Will Fight Future Crimes

How Future Police Officers Will Adjust to Trends in Law Enforcement

Sources

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Crime Characteristics and Trends

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Offense Type

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Property Criminal offence

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Trigger-happy Crime

CNN, "Madoff Victims Set to Receive $772 Million Payout"

Encyclopedia Britannica, Lawmaking of Hammurabi

FBI, 2018 Criminal offense in the The states

FBI, Cyber Criminal offence

FBI, Organized Law-breaking

FBI, White-Neckband Law-breaking

Federation of American Scientists, "Organized Crime in the United States: Trends and Issues for Congress"

Herjavec Group, "2019 Official Annual Cybercrime Report"

Justia, "Racketeer Influenced and Decadent Organizations (RICO) Police force"

The Marshall Project, "New FBI Data: Trigger-happy Crime Still Falling"

The New York Times, "Hate Criminal offence Violence Hits 16 Twelvemonth High"

Pew Enquiry Heart, "5 Facts About Criminal offense in the U.S."

Usa Today, "Cities Where the Criminal offence Rate Is Soaring in Every State in the U.Due south."

Phonation, "The #MeToo Movement and Its Evolution, Explained"

World Population Review, Law-breaking Rate by State 2019

Culturing Factors of People Committing Crime Again

Source: https://online.maryville.edu/blog/types-of-crimes/