It’s been a strange adventure to move back to my home town after 15 years of being away, but it’s even stranger to come back to a tight knit community and hear about this Crime Severity Index rating that is so concerning. There is so much to do here, so many good people, events and activities aplenty, yet it’s apparent this is a topic of discussion, especially since reading a recent article in the Battlefords News-Optimist titled ‘CSI rating drops, but North Battleford still on top’.
Perhaps it has something to do with reputation, the way we are rated and viewed by the rest of Canada that creates concern and maybe it’s something much deeper and more complex, including the simple fact crime is not a good thing. I’ve been told first hand about random vandalism of good people’s cars and where I work was broken into on a few occasions, the culprits ending up being young offenders.
After about a year of being back, I really wanted to know why these things are happening, especially in such a beautiful community with so much potential and opportunity. Talking with an employee from the business that replaced our smashed windows, we chatted and the person’s view was our break-in was from young kids who were bored. The words struck me, maybe the opinion meant something, but surely complex social issues, especially concerning this isolated incident, can’t be reduced to something as simple as one word, can they? I decided to see what I could find and came across a Criminology for Dummies by Steven Briggscheat sheet titled “Important Theories in Criminology: Why People Commit Crime.” It outlined seven ideas I have been thinking about ever since. The following are taken word for word from the source:
Rational choice theory: People generally act in their self interest and make decisions to commit crime after weighing the potential risks (including getting caught and punished) against the rewards.
Social disorganization theory: A person’s physical and social environments are primarily responsible for the behavioural choices that person makes. In particular, a neighbourhood that has fraying social structures is more likely to have high crime rates. Such a neighbourhood may have poor schools, vacant and vandalized buildings, high unemployment and a mix of commercial and residential property.
Strain theory: Most people have similar aspirations, but they don’t have all the same opportunities or abilities. When people fail to achieve society’s expectations through approved means, such as hard work and delayed gratification, they may attempt to achieve success through crime.
Social learning theory: People develop motivation to commit crime and the skills to commit crime through the people they associate with.
Social control theory: Most people would commit crime if not for the controls that society places on individuals through institutions such as schools, workplaces, churches and families.
Labeling theory: People in power decide what acts are crimes, and the act of labeling someone a criminal is what makes him a criminal. Once a person is labeled a criminal, society takes away his opportunities, which may ultimately lead to more criminal behaviour.
Biology, genetics and evolution: Poor diet, mental illness, bad brain chemistry and even evolutionary rewards for aggressive criminal conduct have been proposed as explanations for crime.”
There is chance these theories have since been evolved or debunked, the book is from 2009, but it’s interesting to try to understand why people do the things they do. It helps us to relate and empathize. And maybe, just maybe, understanding will motivate us to reach out and help those less fortunate than we are.
Maybe helping starts with something as little as volunteering at the local North Battleford Lighthouse homeless shelter and maybe knowing a little bit more is just enough to make a change.
But this is an issue in other cities as well. According to a July 22, 2015 CBC News article, Saskatoon led Statistics Canada crime rate for all Canadian cities last year and topped the list for the crime severity index, due to a crime spike in 2014.
CBC News quoted Saskatoon Police Chief Clive Weighill as explaining there is a significant marginalized population in Saskatoon living in poverty with poor housing and few prospects and these people often gravitate to crime. Weighill also explained, because of the city’s strong economy organized crime groups from outside the province are drawn to Saskatoon.
“We’ve been growing, we’ve seen an increase in the drug trade, methamphetamine is causing us problems, that’s what’s really driving our property crime, theft of vehicles, theft from vehicles,” CBC News quoted Weighill as saying.
He also commented crime in Saskatoon has come down about 40 per cent in the past decade, it’s a very small percentage of people causing the most crime, there’s been a small trend in the last couple years, a recent report tracks back to addictions and poverty, things are improving and he believes Saskatoon is a safe community.
The Saskatoon Star Phoenix reported, “North Battleford’s CSI ratings dropped significantly in 2014 compared to the report on 2013.”
