ASSAM UNIVERSITY, SILCHAR DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK ASSIGNMENT TOPIC : URBAN CULTURE AND CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES IN SILCHAR TOWN NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR : DR. SUBHABRATA DUTTA. Submitted to : Dr. SUBHABRATA DUTTA. Associate Professor & Head Department of Social Work Assam University : Silchar Submitted by : KHAN HASINA AHMED. DEBOSMITA DAS. SEMESTER - MSW 4 th Sem.
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ASSAM UNIVERSITY, SILCHAR
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK
ASSIGNMENT TOPIC :
URBAN CULTURE AND CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES IN SILCHAR TOWN
NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR : DR. SUBHABRATA DUTTA.
Submitted to : Dr. SUBHABRATA DUTTA.
Associate Professor & Head
Department of Social Work
Assam University : Silchar
Submitted by :
KHAN HASINA AHMED.
DEBOSMITA DAS.
SEMESTER - MSW 4th
Sem.
CONTENTS
Page No.
Introduction 03
Conceptual Understanding/Discussion 03-06
Present Conditions 07-09
Suggestions for Improvement 10
Social Work Intervention 11-24
Conclusion 25
References 26
INTRODUCTION
The city or an urban place is a centre of attraction. From this it attracts a large number of people
especially from the rural areas. Various factors are there to migrate the rural people to the urban place.
An agrarian country like India is also undergoing the process of urbanization and as a result the number
and the size of the cities are increasing in India. And ultimately the more in number of population the
more in number of social problems like crime and etc. The word “Crime” means a violation of conduct
norms or of establishing norms. The modern concept of crime is essentially a legal concept and
according to the modern approach, crime is a creation of law.
According to Hall Jerome - (1947:8-18) has defined crime as “legally forbidden and intentional action,
which has a harmful impact on social interests, which has a criminal intent, and which has legally
prescribed punishment for it”.
Before we proceed to the meaning and definitions of crime, let us try to deal with the various concepts
of crime. They are :-
� The Demonological Concept : In the primitive society there were those days where the
people believed that society is protected by divine power and the God was the criminal
code. For such an act society was awarding punishment in the form of death to the
offender.
� The Legal Concept : Crime is that behavior which is prohibited by the laws or the
criminal code.
� The Sociological Concept : All actions and behavior which are socially harmful are
considered as Crime.
� The Socio-legal Concept : It is an improvement over the legal and sociological concepts
where it says that crime is an act which is believed to be socially harmful.
� The Psycho-socio-legal Concept : This concept is an improvement over the
shortcomings of all the other concepts of crime. It takes into consideration of the
intention of an individual in committing crime, social conditions leading to criminality
and the legal aspects of crime.
This paper presents an interactive visualization which is done to present the viewer with an accurate
perception of the view of criminal activity in a cityscape. This also employs many different visualization
elements, which taken together to presents this paper in a useful manner that can be used to visualize
many associated factors of crime. So here in the coming discussions, we will talk about the “Urban
Criminal Activities “with special reference to the Silchar town, (Assam).
CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING / DISCUSSION
There are some of the concepts under mentioned:-
� Urban: (Latin ‘urbs’ city) - the term implies, the city or town community where man became a
citizen when he became a member of a city or a state.
� Culture: (Latin: related to ‘cultivate’) - by the term we can understand, a manufactured
environment which surrounds the city man and the way of life of him.
� Urban Culture : By the word ‘Urban Culture’, we can understand - the knowledge, belief,
morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of the
urban society.
� Crime: (Latin ‘crimen’) - the term implies, the illegal and intentional act in violation of law.
� Criminal: (Latin: related to ‘crime’) - by the term we can understand, persons conducting illegal
acts.
� Criminal Activities: By the word ‘Criminal Activities’, we can understand - the activities which
violates the norms and regulations of a society and breaks the law of the State.
� Social Problem: By the word ‘Social Problem’ we can understand - any problem existing in the
society which affect the public at large and which cannot be regarded as individual problem.
There are some of the following ‘Social Problems’ which contributes to the
“Urban Criminal Activities”. They are:-
� Violence against Women: Women are the victims of humiliation, torture and
exploitation. They are beaten, kidnapped, raped, burnt and murdered. In spite of the
legislatives measures adopted in favor of women in our society, women still continue to
be victims of violence.
� Crime and Criminals: As the crime is increasing day by day might cause awareness
among the public but our police and politicians remain ungathered about the present
law and order situation but the Sociologist giving their concern in rising up of the issues.
� Juvenile Delinquency: They are the under-age criminals. From the total delinquencies
committed by the juveniles, the police can catch hardly 2% of the delinquencies. It has
seen that delinquency rates are much higher among boys than girls.
� Alcoholism: It is the habitual use of addict’s choice of chemical to produce a temporarily
pleasant mental state. Earlier it was known for its moral problem and also a sign of
social irresponsibility but now it was viewed as an illegal act.
� Drug Abuse and Drug Addiction: This is perceived as a deviating behavior which grows
ultimately to the cause of social problem. Now a day’s India has become both an
important passage as well as the existing centre for drugs.
� Poverty: It is a situation where an individual is not able to meet his/her minimum
standard of livelihood as a consequence of lack of resources. Hence poverty is observed
in terms of poverty line.
� Unemployment: It is a situation where an individual is capable of working and also
willing to work but remains without work. In India after Independence, there has been
an alarming problem of unemployment.
� Population Explosion: Because of the growth in population India is falling behind in the
contest of speed in the economic and human resources development. The scale at
which India’s population is increasing is simply mind-frustrating.
� Communalism and Regionalism :
� Communalism states that society is divided into religious communities
whose interest differs & also opposed to each other.
� Regionalization is the division of geographical territory with the definite:
boundaries.
The rising trend of the above accompanying violence which created a
feeling of insecurity among the people.
� Backward Castes, Tribes and Classes: This section of people comes under the
underprivileged category in India as because they were occupied by the inferior status.
Government of India prescribes protection and safeguards for them.
� Youth Unrest and Agitations: The youth used to become angry when they notice any
widening of the wrongly deeds in the society. When the youth got frustrated and
disappointed, they start taking some agitation to carry the social protest.
� Child Abuse and Child Labor : Large majority of the Indian children are compelled by
economic considerations to join the labor force where they continue to be employed,
harassed and abused, this cause them to be in distress and violent condition.
� Illiteracy: In India it has been considered as an obstacle in development and the
problem of illiteracy among women in our country is worse. Every time the attempts
made by the Government for removing the illiteracy but it could not succeed.
� Urbanization: There has been a shift in the population from rural to urban areas and
this urbanization has lead to many social problems. Urbanization reflects an
organization of society which is in terms of a complex division of labor.
� AIDS: Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome is a disease which is caused by a virus
called Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV. It is currently spreading in the world at
the rate of one new infection every fifty seconds.
� Terrorism: It is the problem which we have been facing very rampantly in our country
like India. We can say that terrorism is an organized system of frightening the public.
Generally it is practiced by the opponent of the State.
� Corruption: It is a deviating act from the norms of the society for getting the private
profits through the utilization of the public power. Corruption is spread all over in the
society in various forms.
� Bonded Labor: It can be said as the selfish bondage between the two people where a
man is keeping another man for his personal designs in the form of man’s cruelty to
man. It is found that the bonded labor is found as a global phenomenon.
� Black Money: It is both a social problem as well as an economic problem. Consumer of
black money is not affected but it affects the common man in the society. It is not easy
to calculate the magnitude of black money in any society.
So social problems are common to all societies because every society has its own social problem. The
above social problems are the public issues which affect the society as a whole or we can say the larger
part of the society.
Social Problem has been defined by Reinhardt, 1952:14 - as, “a situation confronting a group or a section
of society which inflicts injurious consequences that can be handled only collectively”.
Thus no single individual or a few individuals are responsible for the occurrence of those socially
problematic situations, so the control of this situation is also beyond the ability of one person or a few
persons and as a result the responsibility of tackling is placed upon society at large.
As we know, major challenges to India’s growth strategy are our failure to create an inclusive
economy. While growth has reduced poverty situation to a greater extent but India is still has a block of
poor people and this leads to the hue and cry of the basic needs for the survival. As a result people used
to indulge in all the above mentioned social problems and involving at large creates an environment of
criminal activities.
PRESENT CONDITION
In Reference To India :
In the recent years it is evident everywhere that the city is growing in population at the expense of the
village. It is also observed that urban culture is spreading to the rural areas.
As said by Davis that “The city effects are wider than the city itself".
The growing transport and communications, the increased urban newspaper circulation in rural areas,
advancement in science and technology, etc., have gone a long way in diffusing a wide variety of urban
attitudes, ideas and habits from the city to the village. Urbanism or the urban way of life, has affected
the size and character of the rural family. The mode of rural recreation has changed due to the urban
influence. It is true that the city continues to dominates the country. Even with respect to birth rate,
death rate, age at marriage, infant mortality, divorce, suicide etc.
Man is gradually making the urban environment more suited to his needs and to live in luxury, he can go
beyond the values of human being and as a result there comes the breeding place for the several social
problems where it includes different forms of urban crimes. Urban crime is universal, but research
suggests that patterns of urban crime are affected by the nature of cities and the social, economic and
geographical environments in which they exist.
For example:
� Property crime tends to be higher in cities of the developed countries.
� Violent crime is higher in cities of the developing world.
Regardless of social or economic development, the larger the population of a city, the greater
the level of crime and victimization.
There are many relationships between the patterns of urban life and the patterns of crime.
There are some of the following evidences to support the description of crime in our country. They are :-
� The total crimes committed in India in every year is about 16.35 lakh which are cognizable
crimes under the Indian Penal Code, (IPC) - including theft, burglary, robbery, dacoity, murder,
riot, kidnapping, cheating, breach of trust etc.
And about 38.76 lakh are offences under the local and special laws like Dowry Prohibition Act,