Criminology has always appealed to me, due to its complex nature. Crime has been projected and hyperbolized in the media, where it often incites fear and excludes criminals from our society as it often doesn't promote rehabilitation. Consequently, instead of focusing on many rehabilitation methods, the system rushes to punishment. This has shown to be an ineffective method for the majority as statistics reveal that 60% of people are more likely to re-offend. Therefore, this proves we need to put more emphasis on alternative methods. As an individual who lives in London, I was shocked and appalled to hear that crime has risen at an alarming rate here. What was even more disturbing was finding out that the youth had a lot of involvement with the high crime rates. Being a young individual myself, I believe it is my moral duty to treat this sort of violence as a public health concern, and we need to develop interventions to aid those who are heading down such a destructive path. One of the biggest misrepresentations is that crime equals poverty. It is no longer satisfactory to simply focus on poverty because this essentially just makes it harder for people to coexist, and actually it is misleading. Instead, crime should be looked at as a whole picture, since we need to understand what other factors sustain these high crime rates.
During the start of my gap year, I traveled to my land of origin where I was enticed by the criminal justice system I had witnessed, as they operate under Sharia law. I found that crime rates were much lower there due to the severity of the punishments once you broke a law. As we know, punishments reflect the seriousness of a crime, so it was interesting to see what country found a certain crime more or less severe than the other. For instance, in my land of origin, cases such as theft are treated by the chop of the hands, whereas most thefts in the UK would be regarded as petty crimes and aren't dealt with in such severity. I have also been fortunate enough to visit other countries, which I feel has educated me on the different cultures and the impact of the laws on crime rates. I believe it is essential to learn about the nature of crime in relation to cultures because it will aid me in my future aspirations to work with the criminal justice system abroad.
Religious Studies has supported me in improving upon my analytical skills as it helped me understand criminal behaviors and examine them from a different standpoint. For instance, one of the theories we studied, called free will and determinism, outlines that criminals cannot be held accountable for their actions as they do not have the free will to choose from right from wrong. As expected, many issues would arise from this, as this idea would mean all punishments in place would have to be abolished. I hope when studying this course, I can understand more about the human mind and what exactly causes people to commit crimes in greater depth. Religious Studies has also helped me tremendously with public speaking as I was encouraged to speak more openly when voicing my opinions in debates, and therefore it developed my confidence. It also strengthened my essay-writing skills and helped me to think more broadly and critically when critiquing my own arguments. Health and Social Care has been essential in allowing me to develop my time management skills as I had to meet vigorous deadlines frequently. Most of the work was self-directed studying, and therefore it helped me to become more self-sufficient, which I understand is parallel to what is expected from me at university.
Overall, I am thoroughly looking forward to studying this course, as a degree in criminology would help fulfill my sole purpose of helping society. By gaining greater knowledge and understanding of crime, I hope to use this in an impactful way to make a difference in someone's life.