Crime

War is killing, fighting, stealing and violating. Sound familiar? These actions occur every day in the cities we live in. What’s the difference between crime and war? Crimes involve individuals. Wars involve countries.
So, what is crime?
Crime is a civil war without government sanction. Ultimately, all large countries are always involved in a civil war within themselves with policemen and thieves playing the role of soldiers.
In the United States about 80 reported crimes are committed per 1000 people per year. You might think that you are not a part of this conflict because you are neither a thief nor policeman, but do you lock your doors at night? Do you hide your valuables from prying eyes? Do you have a security system? Fear is a large part of many people’s lives, it is constant and we have lived with it for so long that we no longer notice it. Locking our doors is automatic, it’s rarely an action we take the time to think about, but rather we just do it. Crime is the result of a multitude of factors including familiarity, opportunity and desperation.
To many people, their neighbors are strangers. There are many factors that lead to crime; however one major factor is familiarity or lack of it. Safety and comfort involves a sense of familiarity as people cannot feel comfortable living with what they do not know. It is a classic case of the fear of the unknown. Familiarity with a routine, place, or people is the only method by which to feel secure. In large societies, familiarity is often difficult to find due to the sheer number of other people living within the same vicinity. People who are comfortable with each other are more likely to help and share with each other and also more likely to feel guilty about committing a crime against people who they are familiar with. When people are unfamiliar or lack guilt, they are more likely to steal or commit a crime instead of asking for help.
As a general trend, larger and more technologically advanced nations or groups of people have higher crime rates per capita; however, this is not always the case as many undeveloped nations also have staggering crime rates (South Africa and the United States have similar crime per capita rates (nationmaster.com)).
Desperation is another cause of this civil war. People who feel that they are without any other options will often do anything to survive. This helps to explain the heightened crime rate of impoverished countries but does not explain why so many crimes are committed in a country as rich as the United States. While there is some poverty in the U.S. the vast majority of people are not in a situation desperate enough to justify a crime. The reason that there is such a high crime rate in larger countries is due to opportunity.
The theory of the Sucker’s Payoff can be used to explain this situation. The Sucker’s Payoff theorizes that if continually given the opportunity one side of a conflict will continue to take advantage of the other side. A large number of robberies are the variety where a person will break into a car to steal a phone or an ipod. By leaving a valuable device out in the open the victim is practically inviting someone to steal it and as long as people continue to leave such a golden opportunity; people will continue to take advantage of the opportunity.
In the end, true peace can only be found on a small scale ranging from an individual to small groups of people with populations no greater than a few hundred people. A small population certainly does not guarantee a peaceful society but a large one does guarantee the presence of crime. Tribal areas in Southeast Asia and Africa may be seen as fiercely aggressive, but for some tribes this aggression is directed towards external enemies with the result of having very little crime within the tribe itself. As greater and greater number of people congregate in an area it increases the likelihood that the crime rate will increase, especially violent crime.
This means that while our nation may be at peace with other nations, in the end it is never truly at peace with itself. The only thing you can do is be aware. Be aware that a war exist and be aware that as long as there is desperation and opportunity; crime will exist.

“Total crimes per capita.” Nationmaster.com. 7 September 2009.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri_percap-crime-total-crimes-per-capita.