Crime theories

Crime Theories No: Roll No: Crime Theories The theory that I have selected and that can result in digital crime is Strain Theory. Strain theory can be defined as a theory that is associated with inequality between classes. The criminals committing crime under strain theory are usually socially deprived individuals or they lack chances to move forward economically and socially in different fields of life (Polk, 1969). It is not always the condition that only the socially and economically deprived people commit crimes for monetary success but others who are sound in terms of acquirement of wealth also commit crimes to gain further monetary accomplishment. They are involved in doing frauds, money laundering, cheating, stealing and trading private information and so on. According to the theory, people are pressurized to commit crime and moreover, an individual has his own requirements and expected opportunities that are formed on the basis of social structures and in case of unavailability of desired needs and opportunities, an individual is made to commit a crime (Siegel, 2011).
Like street crimes, white collar crime can also be considered under strain theory. The people who are socially sound can perceive some blockage in their set goals and requirements related to their financial success and consider this as straining due to which, they can be equally involved in committing crime. In addition, they can also regard the provided opportunities as inadequate due to which, they can be pressurized to commit crime (Taylor, et al., 2005).
The strain theory is the most relevant in terms of being a cause of digital crime as the criminals can be socially deprived as well as blessed and can regard the provision of opportunities as lacking. The digital crime involves people from such countries that are poor globally such as African countries as well as from wealthy countries such as USA. Mostly, the criminals of digital crime have ambition of getting richer by selling private and crucial information of one competitor to the other (Taylor, et al., 2005). People who are socially and economically stressed commit digital crime. People can be strained when they fail to accomplish their goals due to which, they are involved in digital crime. They are involved in hacking, selling personal information of their employers, leaking secrets, committing frauds, corporate espionage and so on (Siegel, 2011).
Tunnell (2005) gives information about the criminal Dannie Martin who has a poor background and lack of any opportunity to get success and economic stability in life and all he was required to do was meager jobs, which he rejected to do and became a property offender. Because of seeing his forefathers doing hard chores and getting no good returns, he was pressurized to make a choice that suited him and allowed him to gain money and success through criminal means (Tunnell, 2005).
Marcus Schrenker, quite a rich person and owner of many companies was involved in a fraud of millions of dollars. He faked his death in order to conceal him from police authorities. The motive behind his crime was becoming more wealthy or incomplete goals. He was wealthy enough but still thirsty for more and considered himself lacking something. He was involved in unethical practices (Siegel, 2011). He was strained to get more monetary success due to which, he was involved in fraud.
References
Polk, K. (1969). ” Class, Strain and Rebellion Among Adolescents.” Social Problems 17: 214-224.
Siegel, Larry G. (2011). Criminology. New York: Cengage Learning.
Taylor, Robert W., Caeti, Tory J., Loper, K., Fritsch, Eric J. & Liederbach, John R. (2005). Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Tunnell, Kenneth D. (2005). Living Off Crime. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.