In 2005 the state of California had a population of 36,154,147. This population has been rising steadily. The sharpest increase in population was between 2008 and 2009. The population increased by over 350,000 people. With the increase in population there was an increase in the rate of crime in California.
Objectives
Crime is rooted in economic, social and cultural backgrounds within a society or a certain group of population. This paper will discuss the state of crime in California with relation to its population demographics. It will also look into how environmental, social and economic issues affect the prevalence of crime within the state of California. All of the issues will be based on the crime research data on the State of California within the years 2005-2009. Below is a table of California crime index rates per 100,000 inhabitants.
Factors influencing state of crime in California
For a crime to occur there are five conditions that should be present; space or the area of crime, time, law, offender and the victim (Ross, 2005).
There were several factors affecting crime within the state of California.
Population density
California has been having a population of about 36,154,147 from the year 2005. The state has witnessed a steady rise in population since 2005 to 2009. In 2005 to 2006 the population rose by 303,402 persons. The highest growth of population in California was witnessed in 2008 going to 2009. It rose by a massive 381,293 persons.
With an increasing population crime is prone to occur as many people compete for scarce resources. Those who feel disadvantaged to access the scarce resource resort into crime as a way of asserting their power in the midst of other people. California has managed to ensure that the rate of crime decreases. Within the year 2008-2009 California witnessed its highest growth in population. Over those years, there was also the sharpest decrease in the rate of crime, though still high all the numbers have seen a steady reduction. Within that year the crime index rate per 100,000 persons of violent crimes dropped from 506.2 in the year 2008 to 472 in the year 2009.
Composition of the population
California being a border state has a high level of immigrants searching for greener pastures in the United States. The rise in population in California is largely attributed the increase of immigrants within the state. This is why since 2005- 2009 the number of violent crimes has always been on a higher level (Iceland, 2008). From 2005, index rate for violent crimes has been 3,846.2 in 2005 to 3,203.5 in the year 2009.
Gary (2008) establishes that minorities seek to be heard in the society through a number of ways including engaging in crime to assert their presence in the society. These lead to the development of gangs, (Gary, 2008). These gangs have made the figures to reach such high levels. Worth noting is that the crime index for murder has always been decreasing over time. In 2005 it was at 6.9. This figure dropped to 5.3 by the year 2009.
According to Cohen, youths are more prone to influence from their colleagues due to the fact that they are unstable in making of firm decisions and thus when the influence is negative, a majority of youths engage in criminal activities, (Cohen, 2005). They are more prone to engage in petty crime like burglary, robbery and vehicle theft. The crime index for burglary has been 692.9 from 2005 and has dropped to 622.6 in 2009.
Economic conditions
Generally, it is believed that poverty is the first root cause of crime because people who live in lack struggle to achieve that which they do not have using all the means they have including committing crimes (Short, 2007).Thus, poverty results into lack and lack drives people into committing crime with an aim of satisfying their basic needs
From the economic perspective, unemployment is traditionally thought to be one of the causes of crime. The reason is that many young able-bodied men and women who graduate from colleges often desire to remain independent from their parents and in so doing find themselves at cross-roads when they lack financial resources to sustain themselves. They therefore resort into committing crimes as escape routes for their survival (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 2010). However, new learning in the economic view has also revealed that a part from unemployment, underemployment is also another major cause of crime. Under employment occur when graduates are paid less than they anticipate to be paid due to educational achievements.
In anger and abject dissatisfaction, such graduates resort into stealing from their bosses in order to top up their salaries with the objective of living high class lives as educated colleagues of their levels. In my workplace, this has been the case where many young and freshly employed employees have been sacked and convicted for stealing from their employer. The major cause for this is due to the low salaries paid to fresh employees in the firm which fails to sustain their anticipated basic needs. Thus, the source of crime can be explained from the social, cultural and economic perspective (Cohen, 2005).
Such people tend to engage in violent crimes, murder, aggravated assault and larceny theft, (Lyman, 2008). Violent crimes had the highest crime index level of 3,846.2 in 2005 compared to robbery which had 176.1 in the same year.
Cultural factors
Culturally, children are supposed to be taught moral values from their childhood by their parents as well as other members of the society. However, new learning in the cultural sources of crime has revealed that families and the society at large have neglected their cultural obligations of being role models to their children and have become unfavorable grounds from where children learn criminal behaviors. Broken homes and single parenthood have become common phenomenon in the society from where children grow. As a result, children grow without moral values which make them vulnerable or at risk of engaging in criminal behaviors. They tend to engage first in petty crime before graduating into higher or more violent levels of crime. This is why the crime index for burglary, vehicle theft, larceny-theft and robbery has been relatively high.
Strength of law enforcement agencies
Law enforcement agencies have ensured that there is a reduction in crime. This is because all the crime rate indexes have seen a steady decline over the years. The crime index for property in 2005 was 3,320.6 and it dropped to 2,731.5 by 2009. The crime index for aggravated assault dropped from 317.3 in 2005 to 269.7 in 2009.
Conclusion
California has been ranked as the most populous state in the US. These means that its prevalence in rate of crime is always high compared to other states. There are certain cities within California that are ranked as the most dangerous places in the States. Compton is ranked 4th, Oakland is ranked 8th, Richmond 11th and San Bernardino 24th. There are also places in California that are also ranked the safest. Mission Viejo is ranked 3rd, Irvine 7th, Thousand Oaks 11th, Lake Forest 15th, Simi Valley 17th and Chino hills 21st. This is the safest places in the United States and the six are found in California.
References
Cohen, M. (2005). The Cost of Crime and Justice. New York: Routledge Publishers.
Federal Bureau of Investigations (2010).Crime in the United States by Metropolitan Statistical Area. Web.
Gary, B. (2008). Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach. Journal of Political Economy. 76:2: 169-217.
Iceland, J. (2008). Poverty in America: A Handbook. California: University of California Press.
Lyman, M. (2008). The Police: An Introduction, New Jersey. Longman publishers.
Ross, L. (2005). Civil Liability in Criminal Justice Third Edition. New York: Anderson Publishing Co.
Short, J. (2007). Poverty Ethnicity and Violent Crime. Boulder: West view Press.