Introduction
Crime is not a new problem in the society; it dates back to the genesis of human beings. Crime and defiance cases have lately been rising rapidly and news all over the world is splashed with high rate of crime news than any other item. National crime statistics indicate that the middle and low income household individuals are greatly involved in major criminal behaviors of theft and violence. (Philip 2003). Factors like poverty, unemployment, delinquency, ignorance and weakened neighborhood security are some of the causes of crime today. Other factors like the social economic background, peer pressure and poor family back ground also play major roles encouraging criminal behaviors. (Muncie 2009).
Body
Several studies have shown that conduct problems, aggression, and delinquency vary systematically with the quality of individual neighborhoods and the level of household income; these problems being more common in neighborhoods characterized by high rates of poverty, crime, single parent-headed households, mobility, and unemployment. (Philip 2003).
For the middle class adults, statistics for the offences committed include tax violations, insider trading, embezzlement and various elite crimes. The middle class are the major law breakers in an attempt to take care of expenses and afford comfortable living standards. They are involved in the violating of the insurance premiums in the bid for “unrestrained pursuit of self interest and profit” with their get rich mentality. (Muncie 2009).
Among their major crime according to a research in the United Kingdom is the use of cash to pay their bills and as the usual mode of payment to evade income taxation. They are involved in the inflation of the insurance claims and they even go to extents of ‘picking’ office equipment and other office stationery to their homes. (Burfeind & Dawn 2006).
However, from the Merton’s strain theory, the motivation to commit crime is derived from a disjunction in the American society between the universal aspirations to accumulate material wealth and the limitations imposed by the stratification of the society. As a result, from Melton’s view several adaptations to such as stress are not equally available to everyone. The middle class people have a hard time turning to crime because they have been socialized to be law abiding as opposed to the lower class. (Muncie 2009). The middle class ethic is an ethic of individual responsibility. It applauds resourcefulness and self reliance, a reluctance to turn to others for help.
The middle class norms place a high evaluation on the cultivation and possession of skills and on the tangible achievements which are presumed to witness the possession of skills and the application of effort. They are in readiness and possess the ability to post phone and to subordinate the temptations of immediate satisfactions and self indulgence in the interest of the achievement of a long run goals. This eventually cultivates the value system rewards and encourages the middle class on the rational cultivation of manners, courtesy and personality. (Philip 2003).
Conclusion
The middle class group is a category of people who are always at cross roads. The make up of this group is striving to live there dream and make it in life on one hand and on the other are fighting hard to keep their heads above the waters of life. Poverty and riches are beckoning on either sides, and there is always an increased temptation to look for the easiest way out; crime.
References
Burfeind, J. W, Dawn J. B. (2006). Juvenile delinquency: an integrated approach. Sudbury: Jones and Burkett publications.
Muncie, J. (2009). Youth and crime. California: Sage Productions.
Philip, B. (2003). Crime. New York: Rutledge publishers.