I've always been interested in what exactly causes crime rates to go up. I searched google and found a reasonable answer. It stated that the reasons people commit crimes can either be because 1) poor parenting skills, 2) peer influence, 3) drugs and alcohol, 4) income and education, 5) tv violence, 6) easy access, and 7) hot weather.
All of them seemed to make sense to me, until I got to #7. Hot weather? Really? So I looked further into in and found out this interesting facts...
Crimes increase about 10% during the summer months- murder=16% increase and rape is a 13% increase.
There are several reasons for this. The most obvious one being that kids are out of school, bored, and have nothing do to. My general go to was just to watch TV, but apparently for some kids that isn't enough. Another reason the crime rates go up in summer is because of the heat. It can mess with your cerebral cortex, and cause you to do things you wouldn't otherwise do. It stated that most peoples common sense goes out the window when they're overheated-thus causing them to do something stupid...like commit a crime.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/278337/summer_crime_rates_does_crime_take.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8376295/Causes-of-Crime
All of them seemed to make sense to me, until I got to #7. Hot weather? Really? So I looked further into in and found out this interesting facts...
Crimes increase about 10% during the summer months- murder=16% increase and rape is a 13% increase.
There are several reasons for this. The most obvious one being that kids are out of school, bored, and have nothing do to. My general go to was just to watch TV, but apparently for some kids that isn't enough. Another reason the crime rates go up in summer is because of the heat. It can mess with your cerebral cortex, and cause you to do things you wouldn't otherwise do. It stated that most peoples common sense goes out the window when they're overheated-thus causing them to do something stupid...like commit a crime.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/278337/summer_crime_rates_does_crime_take.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8376295/Causes-of-Crime
I agree with this because in my hometown during the summer, there are so many underage kids who are caught drinking. That number goes down a lot during the winter months and now I know why. There are also a lot more robberies and OWIs in my hometown in the summer. I had never really realized why this would be. I just figured it was because of the nice weather and everyone being outside and out of school with nothing to do. I never thought of what the heat does to you and how it can cause you to do things that you wouldn't normally do. When I am home for some time this summer, I will have to pay more attention to what goes on criminally compared to times like Christmas break.
This is somewhat interesting. I remember both last semester as well as this one, we talked about how violent crime rates go up during warmer weather. I don't remember all the details, but the message from both classes is the weather isn't necessarily correlating to crime; it's a third factor that happens to co-inside with these two. IE, correlation does not mean causation. For example, the link below talks about how there is a spike in "Ice Cream Consumption" before an individual commits a violent crime in warm weather. It's a lengthy site that explains all this in a nutshell.
http://www.hedgefund-index.com/d_correlation.asp
I agree to the fact that crime rates do increase in the summer. This can be by the plain fact that teenagers have a lot more free time in the summer and want to fill that void. They also have more time to commit acts that they are not suppose to do, like drink and break curfew.
I also agree that hot weather increases crime. This is due to irritability and the weather being so nice that more people are outside. When more people are outside, it causes more people to be more vulnerable to become victims of a crime. Also, more children and teens are outside hanging out with their peers which can increase the social influence of those peers. And we all know that peer influence is the most important influence in a teenagers life.
I can also see how poor parenting skills and easier access can lead to an increase of teenagers committing crimes in the summer. Because of the fact that during the school year when the parents are at work the teen is in school, but in the summer the teen may be at home or with peers rather than in a structured environment. But I do not agree with the fact that t.v.violence can be more of an influence in the summer. I believe that most teens are hanging out with their friends and not sitting around watching t.v. all day long. Most of the violent shows on television year around are at night, so wouldn't that meant that television violence is equally present all year around?
It is a fact that violence does increase in the summer. But, I'm just wondering if the seven reasons why people commit crimes are the reason why crime increases in the summer. This is mainly because all of these reasons are present all year around for the exception of hot weather (depending where you live).
This is an interesting claim because while it is true that heat can cause people to loose their grip on common sense it might be an extravagant claim. As Mark stated correlation does not necessarily mean causation. I would tend to think that there is most likely some link between the temperature and crime rate but I wouldn't believe it to have that great of an impact more of a minor fluctuation. Has anybody has done any research on whether a drop in temperature causes a decrease in crime levels?