Crime As A Disease Theory

Crime as a Disease Theory Contrary to popular belief, crime can be looked at many different ways. Some people believe criminals should be punished, other people believe that crime should be treated like a disease, and even some believe that there is no good way to handle crime. Many people believe that jail is a good solution to crime; however, there are people who are starting to believe that crime can be treated like a contagious disease. We all think of a disease as a cold, cancer, STD, something infectious but what is a disease? A disease is a disorder of the structure or function of the human body that produces signs or symptoms that affect a specific location of the body ("Diseases and Conditions"). An infectious disease is caused by …show more content…
Acts of violence are the germs. Instead of infecting intestines or lungs, they lodge in the brain ("Let's Treat Violence"). When people, in particular children and young adults, whose brains are extremely absorbent; repeatedly experience or witness violence, their thought process is altered. People often don't have an answer to why violence goes up or down, sometimes it's just due to the nature of epidemic’s, for say. Killings lead to domestic violence, which leads to community violence, which leads to suicide. When pulling public arrest and homicide records, to look at, a social network of people were linked together because of being arrested for the same/similar crime(s) indicating that they tend to be involved in risky activities, and share social connections with others who do the same. Another part of the theory is that if a child grows up in a home with violence they are more likely to become violent as an adult ("Is It Time"). This relates to nature vs. nurture. It is human nature to act as yourself, but also learn from your mistakes. It is nurture that is what affects our likeliness to be a criminal. According to Kirchmeier, A child learns from the people they are surrounded by. In his law journal he describes a court case where a fully grown man was able to plead insane to killing a man, due to the way he was raised. This man grew up in a home with …show more content…
If the theory is correct, we still have a chance to reduce the rate of crime overall by 75% using different techniques (“Scientific”). One group of people decided to do an experiment. After Doctor Slutkin researched and looked at different epidemics he came to the conclusion that violence is acting like an epidemic. Doctor Slutkin then started to talk to law enforcement, doctors, and prominent people within communities; they all decided to try something that has never been tried before. Curing Violence (“How”)… Doctor Gary Slutkin started the program Cure Violence. The committee started to experiment with it in some of the toughest and most violent neighborhoods in Chicago. The program hired people with criminal backgrounds, trained them to become “Interrupters”, people who are put into neighbors where crime is prevalent, and then when they saw a situation that could turn for the worse they would intervene and “stop the violence”. After 14 years of doing this, this program has been implemented in many communities worldwide. On average Cure Violence has seen a 40 percent reduction in crime in the communities where the program is being used (Ransford). With these rates recording growing and shirnking crime rates in hard neighbor hoods because of this program, many people are starting to look at crime with new points of views, and thinking of new ways we can deal with it. Many still believe, however, that out