Why do People Commit Crime?

THE ACTIVIST PERSPECTIVE THEORY

INTRODUCTION

People are commiting crimes either because of biological or sociological reasons. Biological
explanations of crime assume that some people are ‘born criminals’, who are physiologically
distinct from non-criminals. The most famous proponent of this approach is Cesare Lombroso.
On the other hand, Sociological approaches suggest that crime is shaped by factors external to
the individual: their experiences within the neighbourhood, the peer group, and the family.
Various theories have been documented and most of these theories agreed on sociological
approaches like strain, subcultural, social control, right and left realism, and feminist perpectives
theories. In the eyes of the proponents of the said theories, the society itself is the main root of
crime.

THE ACTIVIST PERSPECTIVE THEORY

To lessen the crime rate, the governments themselves from different countries have been
putting a stop to every crime by making this and that activities. The Activist Perspective Theory,
however, explains that people are committing crimes because they think that they are excluded
from the actions and proposed plans of the government especially their priorities in nation
building. For example, a certain project is set to happen in a certain area where squatters live.
As planned, the squatters must no longer stay in the said area and this would make make them
suffer; eventually, they would commit crimes - light to vigorous crimes - from stealing food from
a bakeshop to robbering a bank. The Activist Perspective Theory explains that people are
commiting crimes because they themselves do not like the present system which currently
happens in their area. They feel like they are the least priority of the government. They think
that they are outside the plans of the administration. This simple generalization eventually leads
to a huge misunderstanding about the government and its subordinates. As a consequence,
they tend to commit crime as a sign of activism.

As a matter of fact, Bae Systems (2018) dubbed the activists as "unusual criminals." who,
eventually, may turn out to be a common criminal, hiding their activity behind a popular cause.
According to them, the tactics used by the activists nowadays have crossed the line fom
legitimate protest into criminality. To support their claims, they showed a number of supporting
evidences saying that activists have already crossed the lines and presently hit the cyberworld.
One of their evidences is the leaking of 22,175 FBI empoyees' names job titles and contact
details. In this case, activists who turned out as hackers have commited cyber crimes.