There is a significant connection between crime and culture. For instance, there are cultural beliefs that do not address murder as a very bad thing. One culture is the Muslim culture. Although it is interchangeably known as a religion, Muslim people has a belief that in the case of murder, their Prophet Allah accepted the justice if it is “taking a life for a life” (Maqsood, 1996). Even though they believe that killing innocent people is an unlawful thing for their culture, revenge is all right for them. Thus, in the case of the Muslim culture, it is likely to happen that whenever a person threatens or kills a Muslim, another killing will happen as a means of revenge. Cultural upbringing is sometimes a factor that influences criminal acts in a society.
Now, concerning the structures of societies today, there are two of them; one is heterogeneous and one is homogeneous. In a heterogeneous society, people come from diverse cultures. Due to the international relations between countries worldwide, immigration is definitely expected. Throughout the history of mankind, large tracts of land – which today can be identified as America, Asia, Africa and the like – were inhabited with people of differing races, language, and culture. And, until today, almost every nationality is composed of different people with differing cultures. On the other hand, a homogenous society consists of just one culture. Or if there could be other culture, there is only one that is predominant among the people in it.
However, the difference between the two in regards of crimes is that heterogeneous societies are more likely to have greater crime rate than homogeneous societies. The sad reality is that societies today are becoming heterogeneous. As Stephen says, “Heterogeneity will be the rule in the 21st century societies and such diversity can lead to serious crime problems, especially in emerging multicultural societies”.
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