Introduction
Climate change refers to the changes in the climate of the Earth ( Ranson, 2014) . A shift in weather patterns characterizes these changes. Most often this term "Climate Change" is used when referring anthropogenic climate change, and this is usually tied to human activity as the cause unlike the changes in climate that are as a result of natural causes (White & Kramer, 2015). An act that is done in violation of laws where the consequence of conviction by a court is punishment is what we refer to as a crime. Crime is doing an offense that is considered as injurious to the society or interests of the state, and it is legally prohibited. There is a significant relationship between climate change and crime. Research on this matter in the last decade is clear on the effects of climate change on crime and also on how crime can lead to climate change. In this paper, we will see the relationship between climate change and crime and how relevant this relationship is according to research done.
The link between Crime and Climate Change
Climate change itself exposes people to different situations that may result in a crime. Climate change causes certain strains and this kind of strains that Individuals are exposed to result in negative emotional reactions, for example, fear and anger. In turn, this creates pressure for corrective action to avert these negative emotional responses ( Ranson, 2014) . Research shows that there is a strong link between temperature and levels of aggression. The study is on, for example, the levels of the day's temperature compared to people engaging each other in the real world. For example, people in a jam on a hot day will keep honking, shouting and even committing violent crimes. The research reveals that heat changes alter feelings of individuals by increasing anger and making aggressive thoughts rise. There is a likelihood of higher rates of crime in areas near the equator compared to those further from the equator. Individuals living in hotter climates with high-temperature variations always adopt a faster life strategy which is presently oriented; in that, they focus on what they are doing at the moment. The conditions make them practice less self-control which in turn makes them react more quickly in aggression and violence (Evans, 2019). The way people approach life is always based on their culture and climate has a large influence on the development of a culture. Having an insight into this relationship might help in putting into place prevention measures.
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Carbon Cost
Carbon cost has a large impact on the anthropogenic cost, and one can argue that human conflict has a substantial carbon cost through criminal activities. For example, the cost that is incurred as a result of theft or destruction of property which is the replacement and the cost of medication caused by crime and also emergence costs in the event of crime when all put together they represent the carbon cost of crime ( Ranson, 2014) . All these activities result in more carbon emissions to the atmosphere which in turn contributes to climate change. To avoid the worst effects of climate change then the human activity must be under scrutiny through a lens of carbon cost.
Climate change can result in catastrophic events such as hurricanes, floods, and droughts. These events cause a lot of straining to the affected victims, such as physical injury and destruction of property (Agnew, 2017). Stress from such leads to negative emotions which in turn lead to crime. Disaster victims will engage in criminal activities when they realize that the government may not cater or rather meet their pressing needs such as shelter and food. From past events, there are cases of looting and vandalism after the occurrence of a disaster. With increased climate changes these patterns are likely to be more severe up to levels beyond government control.
Illegal Migrations
Another crime that is practiced as a result of climate change is illegal migrations. Lose of homes, property and in some cases, livelihood results into individuals forcefully migrating. Studies reveal that involuntary migration is associated with crimes due to the conditions that these immigrants are exposed to (Brick & Williams, 2013). Especially in refugee camps, in some scenarios, these immigrants are faced with hostility, and this results in high levels of strain which will make people have low coping towards legal activities, and in extreme cases, this might result into genocides.
The effect in Social Control
Climate change also causes crime due to a reduction in social control and disruption of systems. In this case for example on the family level, climate change will cause dispersal of people as they seek refuge and this takes away direct control of the parents or guardians stressors such as poverty will have an impact on parenting or supervision of the children. The same scenario happens in the direct control of the State ( Ranson, 2014) . To mitigate, adjust to, and restoration of property caused by damage from climate change, the state consumes most of its resources living it exposed in areas such as the Justice System. During such events, most people become reluctant to cooperate with the states when trying to exercise direct control
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is a traceable pattern in the relationship between climate change and crime. Habitat change, extreme weather conditions either sudden-onset for example tsunamis or slow-onset for example, drought and famine all have shown the ability to affect crime directly. As climate change proceeds then the effects as a result also continue spreading. We have seen that individuals lack the ability to adapt legally, as they struggle to adapt to climatic changes.
References
Agnew, R (2017) Dire forecast: A theoretical model of the impact of climate change on crime - Transnational Environmental Crime -taylorfrancis.com
Brick, JM, Williams, D (2013) Explaining rising nonresponse rates in cross-sectional surveys … ANNALS of the American academy of- journals.sagepub.com
Evans, GW (2019) Projected behavioral impacts of global climate change- Annual review of psychology - annualreviews.org
Mares, DM, Moffett, KW (2016)- Climate change and interpersonal violence: a “global” estimate and regional inequities- Climatic change , - Springer
Ranson, R (2014) Crime, weather, and climate change -Journal of environmental economics and management - Elsevier
White, R, Kramer, RC (2015) Critical criminology and the struggle against climate change ecocide- Critical Criminology – Springer
