There is a substantial body of opinion in support of the view that crime results from poverty—once poverty is eliminated, crime will also disappear. But this theory is belied by the continually ascending crime figures reported from the affluent western world. In the U.S., for instance, one in three families were victims of a crime and a U.S. citizen was murdered every half hour during 1983, according to a survey conducted by the Justice Department. This is despite the fact that America was, during that time, experiencing renewed economic growth. If crime was the result of poverty then we would be seeing the crime rate going down in wealthy countries like America; whereas in fact quite the opposite is the case.
The truth of the matter is that crime is not the result of poverty; it is the result of man’s freedom in this world. We had a good illustration of this in the resignation, at the beginning of August 1984, of a High Court judge in Japan, Mr. Tsuyosni Matsunaga, who had been caught shoplifting two books worth 15 dollars. Undoubtedly Mr. Matsunaga could have paid for the books had he so desired; but he decided to steal them, acting, as he told Supreme Court officials who questioned him, “on impulse.”
Like Mr. Matsunaga, everyone is free to act “on impulse” in this world. If people let their impulses draw them in the wrong direction, then the inevitable result is crime. Crime can only be eliminated, then, by man adopting a belief which curtails his freedom of action and compels him to lead a disciplined life.
Human laws cannot perform this function, because there is no way of ensuring that they are fully enforced. However just a legal system may be, and however stringently its laws are applied, the criminal option will still remain open; it will still be “worth a try” for one who deems crime worthwhile in the first place.
Only if people make themselves accountable to God rather than man can crime come to an end. God’s justice is both complete in form and total in application. If one becomes conscious of the fact that there is no escaping reward or retribution for one’s deeds, then one will use one’s freedom, not to act as one likes, but to choose right and relinquish wrong. Man resorts to crime, not because he is deprived of material wealth, but because he is deprived of the spiritual wealth of knowing God. Only if he regains this wealth can the upward trend in crime be reversed.
