Crime

[Cracker]

Neighborhood Watches and Walking While Black, two sides of the same coin.

The root of the problem is crime. Some groups commit more crimes per capita than other groups. Why? I assume poverty is the culprit. So why poverty? Probably a mix of education, motivation, and opportunity.

I just don't understand how crime is allowed to happen in a home. If your kid comes home with an IPad you didn't buy for them, do you wonder where they got it? Do you just not say anything? Do you ask them to get you one, too? What if they come home with a wad of cash they didn't earn by working?

Most of us commit minor crimes (I think there is a thread about breaking laws around here somewhere) like speeding. Those come with a punishment if you are caught, but you most likely won't spend time in the pokey for them.

How do people get away with major crimes? I always wondered who the people are that rob stores or commit burglaries. Doesn't anyone wonder where that new big screen in the living room came from? How do they get away with it?

[Duchess]

Doesn't anyone wonder where that new big screen in the living room came from? How do they get away with it?

They might wonder where it came from but don't ask because they really don't want to know or they know and are just happy to have it.

I don't think that one who lives in a home where that would be unacceptable would chance bringing it home because an explanation would be due.

[Cracker]

What about sex crimes?

Honestly, anybody who wants to get laid can find someone to hump them. Even stupid people can find sex readily.

And senseless acts of violence? Who are the people who beat the shit out of other people? Who shoots or stabs somebody they don't even know? Isn't it easier to just avoid people you don't like?

I can at least understand crimes involving money. The violence/sex crimes are beyond comprehension.

They might wonder where it came from but don't ask because they really don't want to know or they know and are just happy to have it.

Don't people think about the person who actually worked for the money to buy the stolen items? If there is a crime, there is a victim. Do we really put ourselves that far above others?

[IMaDick]

Some people spend their time looking for criminal ways to make money, it's what they consider to be their job.

I have had the incredible opportunity to meet some of these people, they drive around behind the mailman taking mail out of the box as fast as it goes in, they cruise past your garage,they cruise around neighborhoods looking for people who leave lawnmowers,weed eaters,barbeques, anything of value sitting around in their front yards.

They are opportunists who prey on anyone who is not aware.

[pspence]

I just don't understand how crime is allowed to happen in a home. If your kid comes home with an IPad you didn't buy for them, do you wonder where they got it? Do you just not say anything? Do you ask them to get you one, too? What if they come home with a wad of cash they didn't earn by working?

I remember I kept noticing Bath & Body Works expensive lotions and other crap from there in my daughter's bedrooms while both in Middle School. I kept asking them where they were coming from and at first I bought their excuses...finally I flat out asked them if they were shoplifting and they sobbed while confessing. We were all three up at the store in a nanno second apologizing to the manager and returning them.

[Duchess]

Don't people think about the person who actually worked for the money to buy the stolen items? If there is a crime, there is a victim. Do we really put ourselves that far above others?

No, Cracker, I doubt very much they consider the person who actually worked to buy it. Why would they? They are stealing it, it must be totally irrelevant.

I don't understand what you mean by "put ourselves that far above others".

[Cracker]

You have to hold yourself in the highest esteem to be able to steal something from someone else. It is a way of saying that you matter and they don't, that your needs are more important.

Crime is the ultimate way to dehumanize another.

[HairOfTheDog]

What about sex crimes?

Honestly, anybody who wants to get laid can find someone to hump them. Even stupid people can find sex readily.

And senseless acts of violence? Who are the people who beat the shit out of other people? Who shoots or stabs somebody they don't even know? Isn't it easier to just avoid people you don't like?

I can at least understand crimes involving money. The violence/sex crimes are beyond comprehension.

They might wonder where it came from but don't ask because they really don't want to know or they know and are just happy to have it.

Don't people think about the person who actually worked for the money to buy the stolen items? If there is a crime, there is a victim. Do we really put ourselves that far above others?

All good questions, Cracker.

LC and Dick have more first-hand experience with it, but I've followed a number of crime stories and occasionally encounter crime first hand in the city.

Sex crimes aren't usually for sex, is my understanding. Sexual assaulters get off on the power and control.

Senseless violence, it troubles me a lot too, Cracker. This is one I sometimes encounter just by living in a major city and being out and about for work and play. I think for the most part it is also a matter of rage and getting off on hurting people, in the case where there is no financial gain involved in the crime.

With theft, just plain greed and selfishness, sometimes because of poverty and drugs, I think.

What turns people into criminals? Apathy, laziness, anger, no self respect.. probably coming from too many sources to identify, imo. I do agree with you that most of it probably starts in the home and gets passed down from generation to generation (not always, but mostly).

[ramseycat]

Both of my sons have had their ipods, DS's and just recently my oldest had his $125 calculator stolen at school. I too asked don't the parents wonder where their kid got these expensive items? If one of my kids came home with something that I knew I didn't buy them I would sure as hell be asking where it came from. My oldest stole some gum from Rite Aid when he was about 5 and we went right back to the store and he had to apologize to the manager and pay for it out of his allowance. Then I threw it in the garbage. I don't know why people steal or commit crimes. Because they are poor, too lazy to work for things, brought up in that environment? What I do know is that you can't assume someone is up to no good because they are black and wearing a hoodie.

And Cracker, most sex crimes are not committed because the dude is horny. Rape is not about the sex. It's about control and violence and most of the perps have serious mental problems. They hate women for various reasons and they rape and attack them to take back control. Not because they got a boner.

[sally]

I'm sure drugs and poverty play the biggest role, and then some people are just plain old evil.

The crimes that bother me the most are the ones against children. I don't like to look in the crime forum because it gives me nightmares, I can't even fathom the hell the parents are living in having to think about the horror their child suffered. And then of course you have the parents that just kill their own children.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Don't people think about the person who actually worked for the money to buy the stolen items? If there is a crime, there is a victim. Do we really put ourselves that far above others?

All these asshole I have met over the years see it like this:
Its on YOU to secure your shit in order to keep them out, if you don't then its their right to steal it and you don'r deserve to keep it.
Thats when I catch someone at it I go ahead and commit some kind of violence on them while explaining the error in their thinking, it seems to stick more than a ride with the popo.