Utopian Society
Punishment of the criminal and vengeance seems to have been, and remains, the key approach to crime prevention. The United States currently has over two million people incarcerated in Its prisons. It is second only to Russia in the number of prisoners per capita. The United States is the only country in the western world to practice capital punishment. And it has the most unsuccessful and ineffective criminal justice system in the western world. Four out of five prisoners are repeat offenders. Half of these offenders are serving their fourth sentence. Thirty percent are back in prison for parole violations. The Criminal Justice System is not working. It does not prevent crime, it does not deter crime nor does it reduce crime. There is a grave public need to examine the reasons for this.
Tougher laws and severe punishments do not appear to be the solution to crime prevention. Statistics on the rising rate and the severity of crime are testimony to this failure of the justice system to effectively prevent crime.
Even without proposing a most perfect society in the form of Utopia, it would stand to reason that these alarming statistics warrant a far greater understanding of why men commit crimes along with the matched consideration of methods to help all human beings stay safely and obviously, more happily, within the legal limits of society.
In establishing the perfect Utopian Society, five major crimes must be defined and prevention policies established within the framework of the Social Processing Theories. These five crimes are rape, murder, theft, possession of illegal drugs, and violence toward others. These five crimes are all encompassing of the major crimes committed by mankind throughout history. A perfect Utopia must take into consideration what man is capable of as well as the viable theories which can help explain what causes any individual to commit any of these five acts, in order to help prevent and ideally, extinguish these human behaviors which threaten a society’s existence.
When looking at all five of these acts it is important to reference The Social Processing and Social Development theories as they help shed light onto why individuals choose deviance. The Social Process Perspective assumes that all behavior is dependent on the process of interaction between individuals and society. Whether considering and accepting the viewpoint of the Learning Theory, the Social Control Theory, Labeling or Dramaturgy, it is critical to understand that all five of these theories have a specific causation based within that individual’s environment. According to Social Processing theory, crime is dependent upon the interaction of and reaction of society.
Rape
Any man or woman shall not engage in any form of sexual relations with anyone other then their mate. This is turn will prevent any Sexually Transmitted Diseases as well as adultery. If a victim makes an accusation of being raped, their claim will be taken extremely seriously, and the victim will not be judged for his/her characteristics.
The victim can remain anonymous if they chose to if the matter proceeds to a court of law. It will be illegal to judge the victim for his/her prior actions or behaviors.
Anyone found guilty of raping anyone will be place into a mandatory training and educational program which will include intense role playing where the rapist becomes the victim. Intense reprogramming must take place to re teach the rapist new thinking and new behaviors to help get his or her needs met in a healthy, acceptable manner. Following this program, the rapist will never be without a parole-mentor to help him/her stay within the Utopia’s prescribe boundaries.
Murder
Capital Punishment will be given to only those involved in premeditated murder. This sentence will be used only as a last resort. DNA testing will take place before this sentence is imposed. Imprisonment will be sentenced in the majority of other crimes committed. During imprisonment, counseling, group sessions and in depth evaluations will be conducted on the individuals. Our goal with Utopia is for all individuals to receive proper treatment, and not just sit in a prison cell with no follow up.
Extreme, premeditated murder as stated above is a crime in our Utopian Society that must bring the death penalty. An “eye for an eye” is our motto when planned murder is committed. Because of this rule, we firmly believe that the crime rate for murder will drastically decline.
In the United States the number of death sentences is steadily declining from 300 in 1998 to 143 in 2003. (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) We believe that this should change. Although, we expect that the number of executed criminals will only heighten during the first year or so, then drop drastically.
The number of violent crimes, which include homicide/murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault as recent as just over a year ago showed the following: ( http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov)
Theft
Currently, and within the law, the definition of theft is synonymous with larceny. Theft means: (a) To wrongfully obtain or exert unauthorized control over the property or services of another or the value thereof, with intent to deprive him of such property or services. . (Judiciary@aol.com)
Theft is categorized in four degrees. First-degree larceny involves theft of property or services over $1,500; second-degree larceny is the theft of between $250 – $1,500; third degree larceny is theft of anything under $250 value. Grand larceny is the greatest theft and is theft of goods or services over $1,500.
Crime statistics reveal that this type of crime, with its varying degrees of how much is stolen, is rising at an alarming rate. Corrective and punitive measures taken to prevent a person from taking another’s property or services do not seem to be having the intended effect.
In this Utopia, it is essential that the governing body take into consideration the Social Theories which suggest that one would take what doesn’t belong to him or her because of the four very powerful influencing factors:
1) the individual has learned to steal from watching others do the same and is rewarded for stealing behavior – the child learns everything from the parent – including following in the footsteps of crime and similar incarceration.
2) In addition to being influenced by this learning process, individuals are socially controlled by the surrounding and reinforcing groups (families, villages, tribes, gangs). If an individual has low self esteem and low self control operating, and has little willpower, (the “containment theory”), that individual will be lacking the necessary control mechanisms needed to resist doing any wrongful act, and will fall under the influence of group, hence he will steal
3) once the individual has committed a theft, at any degree, society tags him. There is little escape from the label of “thief” and society does not distinguish between this bad act and the individual. Both are “bad”. Life gets automatically limited for the one-time offender and he then falls under social controlling factors.
4) Dramaturgy keeps the thief in the role of “thief” and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In the Utopia being proposed, in light of these four viable causes of crime, education of the individual as well as the family unit is mandatory for the prevention of the crime of theft. If Society and groups are responsible for teaching and rewarding criminal behavior, then society and groups are also capable of teaching and rewarding law-abiding behavior. In this Utopia, education of every single person will be key along with the introduction of positively reinforced small neighborhood groups, as overseen by the governing body following a specific curriculum that teaches goodness and human development.
The education will consist of teaching individuals the difference between right and wrong, with emphasis on character development and self/others’ respect. Small groups within the neighborhood will be held accountable for each other’s welfare and to police, amongst themselves, for wrong and right acts. Ideally, with all helping to “raise” one an6ther in smaller communities, knowing right from wrong and knowing who it is they might be stealing from, there will be little or no crimes of theft.
Drugs
The use of illegal drugs is another criminal offense in the society. In order to prevent the issue from gaining a foothold and possibly causing more crimes to be committed, effective solutions must be found and implemented. By reviewing and implementing pieces of the current drug control policies of other countries in the world, the use of drugs in the world will hopefully dwindle.
The first, and most obvious solution, is to attempt to prevent the flow of drugs into the Society. By utilizing the resources of the law enforcement agencies in the society, any entrance points will be blocked. As a result, access to the drugs will be limited. Because it is nearly impossibly to police the borders of the Society at all times, it is also important to plan for.
Since the Society cannot assume that one solution will be the end of all issues, other types of preventative measures must be taken. One option is to pass anti-drug legislation. This legislation will contain language that makes drug testing mandatory every 6 months for employees. Also, upon conviction of a drug offense, irregardless of if they are employed, a person will be placed into a mandatory drug rehabilitation program and released upon the proper authority, with no exceptions.
Yet another option is to create anti-drug education programs. These programs will target all citizens, but will be geared more towards the younger generation. It is this younger generation that is the most impressionable, but arguably the most important, since they will be the future of the society.
While no method is fool-proof when it comes to drug prevention, a steady mix of the above options will hopefully keep the use of drugs to a minimum. Ultimately, each individual is responsible for the choices that are made, but it is the government of the Society which is responsible for the welfare of each citizen.
Violence
In order to prevent the crime of violence toward others this Utopia must not, in light of the Social theory researched evidence; teach that violence can be prevented by more violence. This flies in the face of the total concept of the Utopia, where there is to be ultimate peace, harmony and no violence toward others. To attempt this most difficult job of violence prevention, it must be clearly and fully accepted by all Utopia members that a child may be born with aggressive tendencies, but is taught ways of acting more violently.
Early education and the small neighborhood groups can help to educate their small children, conflict resolution and better problem-solving strategies. Families, as we know of them, currently are not teaching enough of this to enough of our children. Escalating crimes of assault and violence evidence this lack of caring, time, training and education. The human mind is capable of both good and bad actions. The mind and body must be taught to act the way in which society wants its citizens to go. Because the family is disintegrating, society must act as the family in this Utopia.
The Utopia must provide positive family bonds and critical education for every citizen in order to reduce, control and eliminate the occurrence of these five crimes. Person’s who do commit one of these crimes will not be punished according to current codes. Offenders will be re-educated through peaceful, gentle and reinforcing methods and allowed to stay within their communities. Social Theory holds that all badness is learned. Our Utopia will operate on the principles of undoing any of this bad learning and teaching the individual only ways of goodness.
