Inequality and its Impact on Crime and Punishment

This literature review explores the impact of inequality on crime and punishment. It discusses different types of punishments and their impact on offenders. The review also highlights the relationship between crime and inequality and the need for further research in this area.

Researching Inequality

Contents
Title: Crime and Punishment.......................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
Inequality and Crime...............................................................................................................................3
Inequality and Punishment......................................................................................................................3
Impact of inequality on crime and punishment........................................................................................4
Summary....................................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................6

Title: Crime and Punishment
INTRODUCTION
Inequality can be referred to as an unequal or unjust distribution of opportunities as well
as resources within a society. It can be said that inequality affect crime by influencing the way
people think, act as well as relate to others. This can lead to a stimulation in social competition
and thus encourage violence (Beckett and Francis, 2020). The respective topic is to interest to me
because it will help me in developing useful insights about them theme of inequality as well as
crime and punishment. The respective literature review will explain about crime and punishment.
The whole report will be based around the theme of inequality.
Inequality and Crime
In simple language, crime can be defined as an unlawful act that is punishable by the
state or any other authority. On other words, a crime can be referred to as an act that is in breach
of the law. Following a crime, the victims can feel depressed, very angry, fearful, isolated and
even experience negative feelings. It can be said that crime may have psychological as well as
emotional impacts that can further lead to tension. On the other hand, punishment can be referred
to as the imposition of a penalty on a person who is convicted of a crime. Some examples of
punishment can include a fine or time in prison (Chuchaev and et.al., 2021). There is a
substantial amount of research which shows that income inequality leads to violent crimes. The
income gaps create social tension and thus, this leads to unfairness. Apart from this, some other
studies show that inequality in income as well as unemployment rate increase the crime rate to a
great extent. As already mentioned, crime can be referred to as a serious offense such as robbery.
And on the other hand, a punishment is a penalty that is imposed on somebody who is convicted
to a crime.
Inequality and Punishment
Increasing the severity of punishment for the person who has committed a crime is
usually based on the type of crime that the person is convicted of. There are four different types f
punishments that can be imposed on the victim such as retribution, societal protection, deterrence
as well as rehabilitation. But there can be some cases of inequality wherein some of the victims
are not imposed harsh punishments as compared to others. As already mentioned, there are

different types of punishments. Retribution refers to one of the first forms of punishment and
lawmakers face the task of determining these appropriate levels of punishment for the crime that
has been committed. On the other hand, deterrence is another type of punishment that aims to
prevent crime in the future and focuses on specific deterrence (What Are The Five Major Types
of Criminal Punishment?, 2021). Apart from this, rehabilitation is the kind of punishment that
seeks to prevent the future crime by altering the overall behavior of the criminal. This type of
punishment includes offering different types of programs for them person who is in prison
including vocational as well as educational programs. Restoration involves the offender to make
direct amends with the victim of their respective crime.
Impact of inequality on crime and punishment
Inequality can have a significant impact on the offender who is convicted of committing a
crime. Humans once in a while cooperate to mutual gain, and occasionally take advantage of one
another. In industrialised societies, the prevalence of exploitation, within the shape of crime, is
associated with the distribution of economic sources: extra unequal societies tend to have better
crime, in addition to lower social agree with. We created a model of cooperation and exploitation
to discover why this must be. Distinctively, our version functions a desperation threshold, a
degree of sources under which it's far extremely unfavorable to fall. Agents do no longer belong
to fixed sorts, however situation their behaviour on their contemporary aid level and the
behaviour within the population round them (Denson, 2021). We display that the optimum action
for folks who are near the desperation threshold is to take advantage of others. This stays actual
even within the presence of severe and in all likelihood punishment for exploitation, considering
the fact that a hit exploitation is the fastest course out of desperation, whereas being punished
does no longer make already desperate states an awful lot worse. Simulated populations with a
sufficiently unequal distribution of sources swiftly evolve an equilibrium of low agree with and 0
cooperation: determined people attempt to make the most, and non-determined people avoid
interplay altogether. Making the distribution of assets more identical or increasing social
mobility is generally effective in generating a high cooperation, high consider equilibrium;
growing punishment severity is not.

Summary
In order to summarize the literature review, it can be said that crime might also have
mental in addition to emotional affects which could further lead to anxiety. On the opposite
hand, punishment may be known as the imposition of a penalty on someone who is convicted of
a criminal offense. Some examples of punishment can include a quality or time in jail. There is a
widespread quantity of research which shows that profits inequality ends in violent crimes. The
income gaps create social anxiety and as a result, this results in unfairness. Apart from this, some
other studies display that inequality in profits as well as unemployment fee boom the crime price
to a great extent (Daems, 2020). Also, there are different types of punishments such as
rehabilitation and restoration. It can also be stated that there is a gap in the respective research
such as there might not be a detailed explanation about how crime as well as punishment are
interrelated. Hence, different measures should be adopted so that any kinds of crime can be
eliminated. Therefore, further research can be conducted in this area to help the readers develop
an effective understanding of the topic as well as in gaining useful and valuable insights as
well. This will further be helpful in developing useful conclusions as well as interpretations in an
effective manner.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Beckett, K. and Francis, M.M., 2020. The origins of mass incarceration: The racial politics of
crime and punishment in the Post–Civil Rights Era. Annual Review of Law and Social
Science, 16, pp.433-452.
Chuchaev, A.I. and et.al., 2021. The historical continuity of criminal law institutions in the
russian legislation and reception of legal norms: viewpoints on crime and punishment.
Laplage em Revista, 7(2), pp.697-709.
Daems, T., 2020. Punishment and epistemological politics in Europe. In Criminology and
Democratic Politics (pp. 121-140). Routledge.
Denson, T.F., 2021. Breaking the Cycle of Violent Crime and Punishment: The Promise of
Neuronormalization. Social Issues and Policy Review, 15(1), pp.237-276.
Online
What Are The Five Major Types of Criminal Punishment?. 2021. [Online]. Available through:<
https://online.pointpark.edu/criminal-justice/types-of-criminal-punishment/ >.