Criminal and Conventional Opportunities

In my criminology courses, my professors have started bringing up the concept of opportunity.

People like to think that anyone has the opportunity to commit crime, but to be completely honest, very few do. I mean, people like to try, but if you don’t know what you are doing you are very likely to get caught.

Think about it, how much do you know about crime? Do you know how to break into a house? Do you know how to launder money? Could you pick a lock? The answers to these should (for legal reasons, do not say yes) be no.

My professors define opportunities by separating them into categories: conventional and criminal.

Conventional opportunities are opportunities provided by the overworld and are socially acceptable. Going to college to earn a degree is a conventional opportunity. As is going to work and earning a paycheck.

While conventional opportunities are open to most, they are not open to everyone. There are people who cannot afford to go to college or lack the schooling to get a good paying job. Even if they are qualified for these opportunities, they might not have the means to travel to the opportunity. It can be incredibly hard to survive, let alone thrive, if an individual is deprived of conventional opportunities.

Without these conventional opportunities, people end up turning to criminal opportunities. Criminal opportunities are opportunities that are provided by the underworld and obtained through illicit means.

However, not everyone has access to criminal opportunities either. There is a strange notion that crime is easy and doesn’t require skill. That is deeply incorrect. I have heard a lot of people boast about how they totally could get away with a crime if they wanted to. Firstly, they are drastically underestimating surveillance and forensic evidence, but most lack the knowledge of the skills required to commit (and get away with) crime.

If you want to be a successful criminal, you need to know what you are doing.

Firstly, you need to obtain technical skills. Drug dealers need to know how to make drugs. Thieves need to know how to crack a safe. Money launderers need to be familiar with accounting and how to hide money from authorities. These are integral to most crimes, if you don’t know how to do it well, you’ll likely get caught.

You’ll also need interpersonal skills. You have to have contacts in the underworld that you can buy and sell things with. Stolen goods can’t be sold at regular pawn shops, they need to be sold at shops with owners who don’t mind. Drug dealers also need to be in contact with their clients and know that they actually have a market.

In this same vein, criminals need to know how to deal with other criminals. Conventional opportunities are protected by the legal system, criminal ones are not. If someone breaks into my house and steals things, I can report that to the police. It would be kind of stupid for a criminal to report that their stolen goods got stolen from them. Since these issues aren’t solved by the courts, they have to find a way to protect themselves from the competition.

Finally, criminals need perceptual skills. They need to be able to spot cameras and identify good targets. If they can’t do that, they are highly likely to get caught.

In conclusion, crime is not as easy as you think it is.