Crime And The Great Depression

Great Depression was one of the most severe economic downturns in the history of the Western World. Due to the existing stability in the US economy, the event was not expected which made the effects worse. It devastated the US economy as the depression threw 1/3 of the banks into insolvency, more than 20 million people were unemployed, homelessness rose, and international trade fell by 65% which caused the deflation rate to soar above 10%. These affected the US economy for nearly 10 years until coming to an end in 1939.

The recession was the after effect of a severe stock market crash of the US economy which was basically due the imbalance in the economy at that point of time. This was the decade following the World War 1 and the post war optimism caused vast number of Americans to migrate to cities in hope of a finer living standard. As a result, more people found employment in the industrial sector, and this resulted in the expansion of the industrial sector. Stock market started providing promising returns. Therefore, people stopped spending on consumer goods and started investing in the stock market. It went to that extent that people took loans from the banks to continue to invest in stocks. Due to this the stock market inflated but the economy, due to shortage of spending was heading to a recession. This was left unnoticed by the investors and on 24’th October 1929, the stock market crashed. In a single day, more than 16 million shares were withdrawn, resulting in a loss of $16 billion. Huge losses caused unemployment to rise to 25% and poverty levels to spike . Employment benefits did not exist at that time therefore the duration of an individual’s unemployment was prolonged. 11000 out of the 25000 banks failed resulting in a loss in spending and production which only helped in the downward spiral of the US economy. The government was inexperienced in dealing with an economic downturn, be it of this scale therefore it didn’t possess the ability to deal with it properly. The depression was a difficult period specially for Americans and people throughout the world. As unnumbered Americans were forced into poverty and unemployment, people committed petty crimes as a way of putting food on the table for their families. It is generally believed that unemployment and poverty were the majors causes of crime rates during the depression. Recent research (Cody Marshall American Economic History) shows that there were other factors which nurtured crime such as organized crime and gangsterism and the depression was not the major factor for the high crime rates. To understand the role of the great depression in the crime rates, it needs to be stated why crimes are generally committed (www.jstor.com). It is said, “a person will commit a crime if the expected utility exceeds that of using his time and other resources in pursuit of alternative activities” After a person loses his/her source of income and this satiation prolongs, then it is possible for him/her to indulge in illegal activities.”

Similarly, Americans resorted to petty thefts to achieve items they couldn’t due to their financial position. A few women would prostitute themselves in order to gain some money to pay their bills etc.

One thing that was directly affected by the depression was the amount of public expenditure. Government had to cut funding for certain projects such as police funding . This affected the general level of security as police workers and other government security workers were not paid their monthly salary. There was a reduction in the social security level and also people couldn’t maintain the level of security at their shops as they could pre-depression. And once the security falls, the chances of a store getting robbed rise.

Besides the Depression there were a few other factors which led to the rise in crime rates during this period. One of them was Prohibition. A common belief at that time was that people resorted to alcohol in hard times to drown in their sorrows therefore prohibition was enacted to protect individuals from the “scourge of drunkenness”. But this backfired badly on the government. Banning of alcohol caused the formation of organised gangs and also caused many individuals to obtain alcohol through illegal means. Fights would often break out between the buyer and suppliers due the profitability of the commodity . This caused a spike in the crims rated which resulted in the government banning prohibition in 1933. But this was not the end. People to ‘resolve’ their problems drank alcohol and studies from the national council of alcoholism and drug independence shows that alcohol consumption rises the probability of a person commenting a violent crime by more than 35% when compared to in his complete senses. With millions consuming alcohol, the crime rated started skyrocketing. Alcohol abuse contributed to 40% of the violent crimes in those days.

An article in the NYC times in 1930 stated that organised bands contributed to a lot of murders as they would rivalries between different gangs would cause many deaths. The murder rates at that point were one of the highest in the history reaching to about 9.7 out of 100000.

The rates remained high until 1935 and rose again only in the 1970 during another recession. After the prohibition ended, the organised gangs turned to other illegal activities such as narcotics smuggling etc. This meant that prohibition caused the formation of gangs which even after ban of prohibition indulged in criminal activities causing the crime rates to stay high.

In 1930, there was a film released named Little ‘Caeser’ which depicted the downtrodden situation of the American society and economy. The Gangster in the movie, unlike other movies dies unrepentant of his offences. This movie was extremely successful therefore it was followed by 50 more gangster movie that year only.

The fact that these gangsters were killed by other gangsters and not the police depicted two things. The state of the society that gang rivalries resulted in deaths and the ineffectiveness of the police. This only affected the mindsets of people and promoted more crime as the gangsters were shown to be brave people or rather heroes. This spread the message that the police was ineffective and indulging in gangsterism is heroic. This did promote criminal activities which resulted in a rise formation of gangs . Thus the formation of the ‘Hays Code’ in 1934.

Hays code was a self-censorship system for film production and to enhance image of Hollywood and also to avoid the installation of a national cinema censorship board. The code prohibited “ Profanity, suggestive nudity, graphic or realistic violence.” It also depicted that real-life gangsters were killed in non-heroic and well publicized situations. Reduced explicit violence made people believe that such violence is unacceptable. This further helped in reducing the number of people turning towards criminal activities and thus the crime rates fell.

But the catch was that all the crimes which usually rise as a result of unemployment such as property crimes and petty thefts didn’t rise as they were expected to. Reports published by ‘Wall Street Journal’ & ‘Manhattan-Institute’ state that unemployment and poverty may not always result in a higher crime rate. They also claimed “Unemployment and poverty were so common during the Great Depression that families became closer, devoted themselves to mutual support, and kept young people, who might be more inclined to criminal behaviour, under constant adult supervision” It would have been really difficult for the children to commit crimes and hide them from their families as the rates of property crimes and petty theft started decreasing. Although there was a presence of petty theft and property crime, was not nearly as much at would have resulted otherwise.

There were also social programs which also helped keep the crime rates lower.

Roosevelt’s Social Security program was brought in effect on 14’th April 1935, it provided funds to families to sustain themselves. Although only a small number of families benefitted from the provided funds, but there was a sense of hope and relief which lowered down the crime rates. Roosevelt educated American citizens that their survival was dependant on each other. If one fails then automatically the others will be affected therefore resolving immediate problems by theft will only make the situation worse. He said the welfare of each American is dependent on the others, petty crimes started to drop after Roosevelt provided hope to the citizens. A quote from Roosevelt in his inaugural address reads, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” shows how faith was being given to the American people, providing them with a sense of hope. The positive attitude of leaders towards poverty stuck families showered them with optimism and brought them closer reducing the chances of them stealing from each other. He started a program to recover the business and agricultural sectors, providing employment to citizens and increasing the standard of living of many families. Roosevelt worked on construction programs throughout the country which provided the people with employment and helped them uplift themselves from poverty. The civilian conservation corps was another project which provided young men with employment opportunities as labour. Because the workers were extremely benefitting from their work, they could help their families by providing food and good living conditions thus they would not be indulging in criminal activities anymore. All of these programs helped keep petty crimes at bay dur to the hope which had been given to the Americans.

To sum up, the Great depression did affect the crime rates, although it was not the major factor. There were other factors present such as prohibition, organised crime and gangsterism which affected the crime rates during the 1930s. Closely knit family structures prevented family members to commit crimes. Social programmes conducted by Roosevelt also helped in giving birth to a sense of hope and bringing people closer therefore reducing the crimes they would commit.

There were both high levels of unemployment and poverty during the Great Depression which is why they are mistaken to be the sole causes of crime in that period. The economy of the Great Depression played only a limited role in the rising crime rates of that period. There were other factors present which took the crime rates to unbelievably high levels . This level of crime was not seen for the next few decades following the Great Depression. To understand why the crime rates of the period were so high, one must look at other factors aside from the economy to understand the bigger picture.