What compels humans to commit crimes?

[Skirata]

Feel free to discuss what compels humans to commit such crimes that seem unimaginable to others.

People do it... for teh lulz...

[Satan]

People do it... for teh lulz...

lol

[abracax]

Lack of self worth and lack of connection with a community. Lets face it, people within their own neighborhood usually don't steal from those they live near, they usually go to a different neighborhood. Because the majority of people in industrial nations no longer have a communal connection with each other. We are basically reverting back to almost tribal communities, small and separated from everyone else with our own tribal rules, laws and justice.

The lack of self worth is evident because no one that feels they are worth anything and are proud of their own accomplishments would risk going to jail and ruining their life over a DVD from Wal-Mart or breaking into a house and stealing some electronics.

[rasterbee]

The lack of self worth is evident because no one that feels they are worth anything and are proud of their own accomplishments would risk going to jail and ruining their life over a DVD from Wal-Mart or breaking into a house and stealing some electronics.

Eh...

I've met plenty of people that take pride in flagrantly breaking the law. Your example is just...trite. There are many many people who have built large portions of their self esteem in breaking/evading the law. Counter examples: people who pride themselves in being able to drive ridiculous fast and not get in trouble. Being a successful poacher is widely seen as an admirable quality in most regions where hunting is popular. Also, drugs dealers.

[rasterbee]

Hells yeah.

One of the greatest memories of my youth was summer, sophomore year of college, having the cops walk brazenly & warrant-less into the house I shared with 4 others. Some punk kid got busted and narc'd out my roommate who was.....a nickel and dimebag hustler. Cops saw a water filtered tobacco smoking device on the coffee table and confiscated it, dragged us all outside and put us on "lockdown" while they acquired a warrant.

They claimed we were not under arrest, but not legally allowed back inside the house. It took them 2 hours to get a warrant, so we took turns making up excuses to leave and walk back in through the rear door for some general housing cleaning/evidence tampering. I still haven't found many things in life more thrilling than tip toeing up the stairs of a creaky old 100 year piece of crap house while two cops sat 5 feet away on the front porch flirting with one of our super cute, well-endowed blonde roommates. Made 3 trips back and forth between a friend's house a few doors down, hiding stuff in the chest freezer in their basement. The look on the cops face after they returned with a warrant and searched the house from top to bottom was priceless.

Committing some crimes are fun.

[trogdor1316]

Insanity might have a hand in it.

Insanity is my favorite reason. Sure, many crimes are committed because of anger, greed, lust, etc. But the really interesting ones, the ones that catch your eye in the newspaper the next day are always the ones where, maybe a psychopath escaped from an asylum, or a druggie took a bit too much and thought that his landlord was a magic llama during hunting season. Those kind of things always make for an entertaining story.

[killerwave7]

Insanity might have a hand in it.

I don't know if greed is the right word. Selfishness is definitely the defining factor.

It is a fact that infants are completely selfish. They are supposed to be. In order to survive, an infant cannot be thinking "Mom is busy, so I won't cry for food right now." As children grow they must be taught empathy and sharing and compassion. I think a lack of those qualities is what leads to crime.

My answer is exactly these 2 posts combined, humans are irrational beings therefore you must leave some room for insanity and complete illogical decisions. However, this is not the case in all scenarios and that is where FoxyBunny's response is also correct. The norms in a society are a highly influential factor and selfishness is a value that typically appears alongside the promotion of society's view on "how to be successful".

It's funny to say this, but I think irrationalism and "having a soul" (as opposed to being robots devoid of emotion) are ultimate causes as well.

[trogdor1316]

Technically, "insanity" in itself is nothing but a legal term. I find this to be incredibally ironic. I don't really know why, because it's only really slightly ironic.

[flamework]

Its the 7 deadly sins,hands down. Greed, lust, pride, they are what motivate our most base emotional responses. Most crime is spontanious until it becomes habit. We are driven by these base responses to do what we know wrong but ........ we do it anyway to satify this base need. Over time it gets easier and easier to do the wrong thing and soon you have the habitual criminal.

[trogdor1316]

Its the 7 deadly sins,hands down. Greed, lust, pride, they are what motivate our most base emotional responses. Most crime is spontanious until it becomes habit. We are driven by these base responses to do what we know wrong but ........ we do it anyway to satify this base need. Over time it gets easier and easier to do the wrong thing and soon you have the habitual criminal.

You're still forgetting insanity and religion. Remember the chick who drowned her baby because "Jesus told her to?" Either Jesus Christ is a complete jackass who drowns babies, or she was all crazy-crazy, yo.