Impacts of Crime on Victims

For any crime, be it theft to sexual assault, there will be long and short term impacts on the victims. These crimes could make anyone nervous, depending on someone's personality, their nervousness could make their time after a crime better or worse. A person who is all ready apprehensive of most things, will have a harder time after a crime than someone who is more self-assertive and fearless; but the severity of the crime as well, will affect the severity of impact on that person.
To anyone who has had anything stolen from them, such as a statue - or something more personal, the short impact of that crime would be the anger of the victim. Angry at whoever did it, angry at themselves because there might have been a chance that they could have stopped it, or just angry because it's gone, but the impact could go so much deeper. Over time the victim could spend more and more money on security, especially if something was stolen from their home. The more personal the item and where it was when it was stolen will make the effects last that much longer. If it was an item that was trivial, and not really expensive, than the victim will most likely get over it quicker.
If the crime is violent and physical though, the consequences could be much greater. The effect of an assault, sexual or not, is lasting. The victim would have a greater long term impact, possibly completely changing their lives. In the case of a rape victim, they might go as far as to move away, change their appearance, attitude and totally alienate their friends and family around them. Depending on if it was someone they knew, than they may never trust anyone ever again, leading to stress in all areas of their life.
In the case of others, kidnapping is also a crime that would lead to a change in life. On April 8 2009, Victoria "Tori" Stafford was abducted, her body was found July 19 2009.  Terri-Lynne McClintic plead guilty to first-degree murder, and her partner Michael Rafferty, was also charged with first-degree murder. On April 27 2010 victim impact statements were made by Tori's family on the request by the judge. On December 9 2010 they were published on the Global News website. They talk of how much they miss their daughter and only sister and wonder what she would have missed in life. Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, writes of how she has nightmares now and cannot sleep. Tori's brother, Daryn, writes about how he is scared to be on the street now and does not like going anywhere by himself. 
Click here for the statements on the Global News site. 

Crime, Increasing or Decreasing?

According to Statistics Canada, violent crime is on the decrease; but watching our local news networks, it seems that this is not true. The portrayal of violent crimes in the media shows a mass problem of gangs and homicides. In the first minutes of a show alone, there is a slew of gang shootings, assaults and fires in half of the buildings in town. So is violent crime actually on the decrease? If it is, what about other, less harmful crimes; are we becoming a safer Canada?
After watching our local news network, we might have to work harder to find the courage to leave our houses. Story after story about homicides, gangs and sexual assaults, especially in the larger cities, could be frightening, but according to the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, "From 1977 to 2006, the total rate of both violent and property crime declined from 5,039 to 4,539 incidents per 100,000 Canadians"and it "reached it lowest level in almost 30 years". In 1977 the rate of violent and property crimes was 5,038.52 per 100,000 people, it steadily increased through the years, finally peaking in 1991 at 7,219.52, ever since then the numbers have steadily decreased ending up at less than it started at. This isn't to say though that this is all over Canada, yes it is on the decrease, but these rates are still higher in western and northern Canada.
There are many factors that lead to this decrease. One would be age. The baby-boomers are getting on in years and there are now less youth than there were before. It is proven that it is usually younger males who do crime, so if there is less then them, than there is less crime. The economy would also be another factor. Right now we are recovering from the recession, but we aren't completely recovered. When the economy is good, there is more theft, because these items would create a larger profit, but now with the recession, items are not worth as much, making theft and B&E's less profitable. One major reason though, even though it is shown a little too much, is the news. If everyday gang shootings and homicides are shown, what do you think the police are working on? It is the fear of the people that makes the police crack down harder to stop the violence.
Just recently, in Nanaimo BC, it was reported that crime was considerably down, with a few exceptions. On the Global News website on December of 2010 it wrote that according to recent reports from the RCMP "overall, crime rates fell in October and November compared to the same time last year with a decrease of 10% and 13% respectively." Drug-trafficking offences dropped 36%, while weapons-related offences dropped an outstanding 33%. There are of course exceptions to this that included residential break-ins and motor-vehicle theft. The officers say they were not surprised on the rise of thefts seeing as how it was around the Christmas holidays and temptations were everywhere.

Crime, Why it Happens

For centuries, there have been many theories on why crime happens. From the witch hunts to modern day science everyone's theories have been different. For most of us today though, we can figure it out for ourselves. There is the most obvious reasons of revenge, drugs, or money; but if we dig deeper, what really makes people snap and commit a crime?
Each of us have grown up differently. Be it in a rich family or in poverty, our surroundings mold us into who we are today. An example would be gangs.  A lot of the gang crimes, are tied to impoverished teens. Growing up in broken homes they may be seeking the "family" they've always wanted, joining gangs gives them the opportunity to be a part of something. Of course the benefit being money and drugs. For these teens though, they may all ready be used to this lifestyle. Growing up around family members, like an older brother or father, who may be part of a gang. This then gives them the opportunity to get closer to their brother or dad, something they may have been missing when they were younger.
Of course though, crime is not just related to poverty. Most of the crimes of embezzlement or the "white collar crimes" are associated to individuals of a higher social standing. These people are usually smart, they went to school and have good paying jobs. In 2008 workers from the Canada Revenue Agency were charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars by filing fraudulent tax returns and diverting refunds and related benefit payments to their personal bank accounts. These two people had good paying jobs and been working with the agency for many years. Their names were never released though. They prove the point that it's your surroundings that dictate what kind of a crime you will do.
For the many reasons of why people commit a crime, not all of them are because of their surroundings, like mental health issues or revenge, but the majority occur because of where these people grew up, who they were surrounded by and what they were surrounded by. Be it family members or the people we work with, ideas for these crimes come from everything around us.