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.