Crime and Modernization

Book excerpt: In this pioneering analysis of the influence exerted by moderni­zation and socioeconomic evolution on patterns of crime, crim­inologist Louise I. Shelley asserts, "Society gets the type and level of criminality its conditions produce." Shelley investigates crime patterns in undeveloped capitalist countries, in developed capitalist countries, and in Socialist countries. Her study is unique in that she alone synthesizes his­torical accounts of crime and civil disorder with the literature of modern urban studies and contemporary criminality. Through her cross-cultural and historical approach she demonstrates that contrary to what seems apparent, the global profile of crime is not that of a maniacal pillaging monster. The monster is sane. Crime patterns are predictable. By analyzing the criminal population, recent crime trends, the impact of the criminal jus­tice system, and the predominant values of society, Shelley makes informed predictions concerning the future state of criminality. Shelley addresses six issues. She considers ways in which modernization has affected rates of crime during the initial and later stages of a society's development. She asks how moderni­zation affects the rates of occurrence of fundamental forms of crime. Another question is whether development changes the relationship between crimes against property and crimes of vio­lence against people. Does the speed of the transition from un­developed to developed society alter observable patterns of be­havior? And finally, does modernization change the nature of the criminal population? In this book Shelley provides both historical and contempo­rary perspectives from which to view the impact of the develop­mental process on levels and forms of criminality. She synthe­sizes the large body of literature aimed at measuring the extent to which socioeconomic development produces similar changes in culturally distinct and geographically separated nations.