Geophysical Factors as Crime Determinants

Abstract

The problems of ensuring the safety of people during natural disasters and of mitigating their consequences have long been discussed at the highest levels. The currently adopted approach determines that the key task of every state is to develop a general strategy of predicting natural disasters, to organize cooperation on ensuring the safety of people and reducing material damage, and to reduce the dangerous anthropogenic impact on the environment as a cause of catastrophes. An important segment in the development of such programs is criminological research of crimes in the conditions of natural disasters. This article analyzes key concepts of the impact that natural disasters have on crime (therapeutic community, social disorganization, hypothesis of routine activity). It is concluded that the consequences of natural disasters have a criminologically meaningful effect on all spheres of public life. As a rule, such events lead to changes in both absolute and relative indices of crime, in its qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Key forms of criminal activities are analyzed and described, including: 1) vital, as a form of adapting and satisfying vital needs in the conditions of acute deficit of resources (food, clothes, medications, etc.); 2) affective, i.e. conditioned by a negative emotional state of people; 3) disinhibited, arising from the collapse of social control institutions, feelings of the absence of control and impunity for any actions; 4) situational, as an optimal form of behavior in the existing conditions, as a method of reaching some goals; 5) delayed, representing long-term social consequences of natural disasters.