short essay on crime and punishment

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Crime and Punishment, Essay Example

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Crime is a violent act with an aim of hurting other individual. The aim of a crime is to destabilize the peace and tranquillity of the society. There are various aspects that make up a crime. They include:

• The nature of the crime
• The motive of the crime
• Whether the culprit was caught or not
• The punishment
• The reason of the punishment
• The effectiveness of the punishment

The above aspects are vital in understanding crime and punishment. Crime has origin like any other thing in existence. There are theories that have been brought up to understand crime with an aim of stopping it. These criminals behaviour are known to have been triggered by something to do these acts of violence. There are some French and Italian thinkers who have come up with various schools of thought to understand crime and the motives behind them. These thinkers have been able to understand the minds of criminals. Understanding the minds of the criminals can lead to early prevention of crime (Tonry, 2000).

The punishment for the crimes is something that has evolved through the ages. The punishment was meant to change the behaviour of the perpetrator and was to be fitting to the crime. This is something that initially brought up a lot of problems since the perpetrators came out not reformed. It is something that has changed over the ages as various reformers have come up to change the status quo.  These reformers made a significant difference and the change was positive. The main reason for punishment is being achieved now. This is now up for debate since change comes from an individual choice to change their habit and behaviour ( Dostoevsky, 2004).

Tonry H. Michael . (2000). The Handbook of Crime & Punishment . Foster City, CA: Oxford University press.

Dostoevsky F. (2004). Crime and Punishment Enriched Classics . Kentucky: Simon and Schuster.

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Crime and punishment IELTS model essay with vocabulary

Our band nine sample essays give you the opportunity to learn from successful essays that show off the best structure, vocabulary and grammar. This IELTS essay on crime and punishment explores the advantages and disadvantages of harsh punishment for criminals.

band Nine Sample Essay

In some countries, crimes are punished harshly. what are some advantages and disadvantages of this approach.

Several nations have opted to implement a system of strict penalties, such as long jail sentences and execution, for crimes. In this essay, I will explore the advantage that this is a good deterrent with the disadvantage that this harms rehabilitation .

Punitive measures can help deter future crime. If people can see that crimes will be punished harshly, they are far less likely to want to commit a crime . Because people consider risk versus reward before acting, making crime as risky as possible by increasing punishment can stop criminals. Conversely, when countries have light punishments for crimes like shoplifting , people in those countries might feel like it is worth the risk to do these crimes.

However, these strong punishments also increase recidivism by failing to rehabilitate people. One of the main purposes of sending people to prison is to prevent them from committing crimes when they leave; however, making prisons and other punishments too strict works against this purpose. When criminals have a heavily punitive experience, they lose self-confidence and become distrustful of authority , meaning they are more likely to be involved in crime when they leave prison. Alternatively, if prisoners have access to training and support, such as drug rehabilitation programs and anger management classes, they are far more likely to rejoin society in a productive way. 

In conclusion, the correct punishment for crimes is a complex issue. On the one hand, strong measures deter crime; on the other hand, the same measures make it more likely for prisoners to reoffend .

crime and punishment vocabulary

Although crime and punishment is a common topic in the IELTS exam, there, thankfully, is not too much vocabulary you need to know for it. Let’s take a look at some of the high level vocabulary in this answer to kick start your learning.

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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor dostoevsky, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Crime and Punishment: Introduction

Crime and punishment: plot summary, crime and punishment: detailed summary & analysis, crime and punishment: themes, crime and punishment: quotes, crime and punishment: characters, crime and punishment: symbols, crime and punishment: theme wheel, brief biography of fyodor dostoevsky.

Historical Context of Crime and Punishment

Other books related to crime and punishment.

• Full Title: Crime and Punishment (In Russian: Prestuplenie i nakazanie )
• When Written: 1865-1866
• Where Written: St. Petersburg
• When Published: 1866 (serially, in twelve installments)
• Literary Period: Realism
• Genre: Psychological realism
• Setting: St. Petersburg, Russia; 1860s
• Climax: Raskolnikov confesses to Sonya his murder of the pawnbroker and Lizaveta
• Antagonist: Porfiry Petrovich
• Point of View: Third-person omniscient

Extra Credit for Crime and Punishment

The Problem of Translation. The Russian language is filled with prefixes, suffixes, and forms of words that allow for numerous shades of meaning, depending on circumstances, and which allow certain ideas to recur throughout a text. For example, the Russian word for crime used often in the novel can be translated as “stepping over”—and the idea of “overstepping” the bounds of civilized society becomes a fixation of Raskolnikov’s throughout the work. Dostoevsky has been translated into English many times over the past one hundred-odd years, with the most recent version (the version used as the basis for this guide) being Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s 1992 translation. This latter version, in the words of the translator, attempts to capture both the “roughness” of Dostoevsky’s language and the repetitions and echoes that are a hallmark of his prose.

Crime and Punishment

Introduction to crime and punishment.

Crime and Punishment was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky . It is the tour de force that presents the post-reform Russia through the character of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. The novel first started appearing in series in The Russian Messenger, a literary journal, during the year 1866 and impacted many readers. Later, when the single-volume hit the shelves, it proved an instant success for Dostoevsky. Often referred to as the Russian masterpiece, Crime and Punishment continues to fascinate generations both in the East as well as in the West. The book was translated into various languages.

Summary of Crime and Punishment

Rodion Raskolnikov is living in St. Petersburg, facing acute poverty despite having handsome looks and an intelligent mind. After some thought, he plans to kill the pawnbroker widow, Alyona, to have her money. However, finds himself involved in the familial issues of Marmeladov after he has had a brawl with his wife, Katerina, and sees their messy life. On the following day, he receives information from his brother Pulcheria Alexandrovna about his sister’s marriage, Duyna, and his family’s migration to the same city. Instead of paying attention to this familial issue, he overhears some people talking about the death of the same pawnbroker. After this, he visits her to kill her and tries to find money instead he finds her sister. Rodion kills her, too, and escapes empty-handed.

The next day Rodion tries to wash all traces of the blood of the old woman whom he murdered a day before when the police call him. Though the call is not relevant to the murder, it is his landlady trying to extort money from him. The police suspect him of any crime and they do not find any clue either. He also hides things he has taken from the widow. Meanwhile, Rodion visits Dmitri, his friend, who has offered him work but he rejects his offer, comes back home, and faints. When he comes to his senses, he finds his landlady and his friend taking care of him. They inform him about the arrival of the doctor and a police detective. Although they sense his discomfort at the mention of the murder, they do not suspect him.

Later, Rodion’s sister and her fiancé visit him after which he meets Zamyotov, the police detective, before whom he almost admits his hand in the murder yet it doesn’t raise any kind of suspicion. Unfortunately, he finds Marmeladov killed in an accident while he assists Sonya and his mother. When his sister and brother-in-law come again to meet him, he asks them to part ways, while his friend Dmitri also tries to explain his involvement with them. After some thought, he seeks an apology for his behavior and admits having given money to Marmeladov, expressing his fury over his sister and his fiancé for marrying her. When he meets Sonya after that he agrees to join her father’s final rituals. Soon Rodion meets the investigator and talks about the murder. However, again it comes to naught, as a stranger follows him whom he found in his room in that morning. He suspects him having discovered his secret but the stranger shares another plan, talking to him about his sister’s fiancé whom he does not like, and offers a huge sum to him to leave his sister.

Following this, Rodion meets his friend Dmitri who tells him about the police and their suspicion about him being the assassin while discussing the affair of Dunya’s marriage. To their luck, Luzhin, whom Dunya is going to marry, insults everybody, causing the dissolution of the engagement. Both Rodion and Dmitri talk about establishing the business as well as helping Dunya. After a while, he leaves for Sonya where she narrates to him the story of Jesus and Lazarus when Svidrigailov spies on them. Following this incident, he meets the eavesdropping police officer Porfiry to discuss the murder but Nikolai, a suspect, arrested for that murder, breaks in and confesses his involvement, leaving him confused. Later, he comes to know that the confessor has no clues about his crime. Then, he bumps into Sonya and Luzhin after which he confesses the murder before Sonya and his motives for killing the lady. He also finds himself mixed up in the affairs of Sonya who encourages him to confess before the authority. She soon leaves and Svidrigailov informs her that he knows about the murder too.

Dmitri goes to meet his friend to tell him about Rodion’s mental condition and the situation his mother and sister have gone through because of him. The police officer, Porfiry, arrives and explains Nikolai’s situation and also tells him that he knows his crime but has no evidence to arrest him. Instead of confessing, Rodion goes after Svidrigailov who tells him about his involvement with a young girl. Then, he goes to meet his mother and comes to know that Svidrigailov has committed suicide after which Rodion goes straight to the police station. He finds Sonya and confesses his crime after which the police arrest him. Finally, they send Rodion to Siberia for the murder.

Major Themes in Crime and Punishment

• Alienation: Crime and Punishment shows the thematic strand of alienation of an individual from society through Rodion Raskolnikov. Although he struggles to work hard, he falls low. He commits the crime and kills the pawnbroker lady. That makes him paranoid with the suspicion that he may face arrest at any time. This also leads him to feel estranged from Dunya, his sister, as well as Sonya, his lover, whom he could not marry. His extreme self-reflective nature causes him to have delirious fits of temperament. However, he soon comes to the point that he is alien in a society where he should join the others by confessing his crime after Sonya forces him to do the right thing. Finally, he feels that he has alienated not only his friend, Razumikhin but also Sonya whom he loves, and admits it by the end of the story.
• Crimes and Morality: The novel shows the world of crime and the feeling of moral sense through Raskolnikov and his act of murdering the pawnbroker lady. He thinks it is his right to murder if that contributes to his greatness or having good career prospects. This seems that he has lost the moral sense of doing right or wrong. His justification of the murder does not hold weight until Sonya point’s that to him. Rodion then breaks down realizing his mistake. However, Nikolai enters the scene and confuses the police. Though, Rodion has committed the murder and even starts by confessing. Finally, when he faces the punishment of exile to Siberia, his atonement starts, making him morally satisfied.
• Free Will: Free will is a secondary theme of Crime and Punishment. The first instance of this free appears with Rodion’s action when he kills the pawnbroker lady. It has never occurred to him that it the mind that made him do that and he had a choice. From this act of free will to his next acts of taunting his sister, Dunya, seducing Sonya and letting her go and even his confession before Pirfory are all examples of his free will. Yet it seems coincident that Nikolai does confess even before him. These things mix up the concept of free will, yet they show that human beings commit acts on their own, showing they are having free will.
• Madness: The novel highlights the theme of madness through the character of Rodion Raskolnikov and how it impacts him first when he decides to kill the pawnbroker lady and then experiences fit of madness, and then further severe hallucinations when the police try to get evidence on him. Sonya also suffers from depression while his friend, Marlmeladov’s drinking leads him to another type of madness. Svidrigailov also experiences madness after facing rejection from Dunya.
• Suffering: The novel not only highlights suffering but also the ways to redeem oneself from the causes. Rodion murders the old lady, a crime that haunts him throughout his life until he confesses it before the police officer. He suffers after the act, impacting all his near and dear ones. When he finally goes to Siberia to take his punishment, he experiences peace.
• Nihilism: The theme of nihilism is apparent through the resigned attitude of Rodion Raskolnikov after he murders the old lady, Alyona, and his sister, though the second murder is purely coincident. His comments about the lady as a good-for-nothing show his nihilism, including his indifferent attitude toward his mother and sister.
• Moral Framework: The theme of a moral or ethical framework through the murder is observed in this story. When Rodion kills the lady, he has not given any attention to the moral framework, though, there is one in the Russian context . Leaving this moral framework causes him a moral as well as a mental dilemma .
• Psychology of Crime: The novel shows the theme of the psychology of crime through its main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, who kills the pawnbroker lady merely because he needed money, after learning that the lady has money and resources. As soon as he commits the crime, he is paranoid, thinking that every policeman is after him. He keeps trying to get caught and escape the police, thinking that the police already know about his crime. He believes they are after him. At one point, Rodion breaks down and confesses his crime. Porfiry shows him Nikolai who has already confessed the crime despite having no clue of the actual murder. Finally, when he confesses, it is too late. Rodion accepts his fate after he is dispatched to Siberia to serve his punishment.
• Superiority Complex: The novel also shows the theme of the superiority complex as opposed to the inferiority complex. As Rodion Raskolnikov suffers from it. He thinks that he is superior to all others around him, including his sister, Dunya, and his friend Razumikhin, who tries to stay with him until the end when Rodion is punished after he confesses the crime. However, this becomes complex when he starts having fits of hallucination after he loses his own ethical framework after the murder. The guilt of committing murder and the ensuing mental conflict leads him nowhere. Finally, he’s sent to Siberia where the police send him after the confession of his crime. This makes him let go of his superiority complex as he resigns to his fate.
• Utilitarianism: Rodion’s justification for murdering Alyona is based on his utilitarian thinking of having money enough to lead a comfortable life.

Major Characters of Crime and Punishment

• Rodion Romanych Raskolnikov: Rodion is the protagonist and the central figure of the storyline. The story starts with his obsession to earn money followed by his act of crime, murdering Alyona, the pawn broker lady, and her sister. This double murder further leads him to experience a mental breakdown when the police pursue the case. While trying to escape the punishment, he also has to take care of his mother and Dunya, his sister, including his sweetheart, Sonya, and his friends, and acquaintances. He becomes paranoid and depressed, and he continuously falls sick and even falls unconscious due to the impending fear of the police and punishment. He continues to hide from the police and his confession is not given serious consideration either. The police can’t arrest him without evidence. He falls apart and becomes indifferent towards Sonya and his sister, including her brother-in-law. Finally, with Sonya’s encouragement, he confesses his crime and is sent to Siberia to serve his punishment, which he accepts with peace.
• Sonya Marmeladov: Sonya meets Rodion immediately after he wants greatness following the death of the pawnbroker lady, Alyona, and her sister. She provides Rodion necessary emotional and monetary support. Sadly, she doesn’t see a future with him, as he stays engaged with the dilemma of his crime he had committed. She is poor but holds high moral standards. Thus playing a very important role in Rodion’s transformation in the end. She persuades him to confess his crime and free himself from the mental torture he has been undergoing since the day he had murdered both women. She stands by Rodion despite his difficult times and accompanies Rodion to Siberia even though she knows that he has to be away to endure his punishment.
• Dmitri Razumikhin: Dmitri is a close friend of Rodion and knows that he would not abandon the idea of greatness. Despite his inept thinking and action, Dmitri is quite generous and assists his friend in many ways including providing support to his sister and mother. A down-to-earth humble person, he does not take much care of the mental predicament that his friend is undergoing. He remains loyal by marrying Dunya, Rodion’s sister by the end of the novel.
• Dunya Romanovna: Dunya is Rodion’s sister. She is taunted by him and even goes after her when she is engaged to Luzhin. She finally comes to know about her brother’s crime, murdering two women. She asks him to give himself over to the authorities. However, it is interesting that she saves herself from Svidrigailov and Luzhin with Rodion’s help. Finally, she marries Rodion’s loyal friend, Dmitri.
• Svidrigailov: Svidrigailov is a manipulator and works for Dunya. He pursues Dunya and becomes bitter when he can’t marry her. However, it is interesting to note that he assists the family several times which can be interpreted as parts of his seductive efforts toward her. He commits suicide after he fails to win her.
• Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailov: Marfa is Svidrigailov’s wife. She comes to his financial rescue. Despite knowing his promiscuous nature, she stays loyal and later assists Dunya to meet Luzhin. Her goodness of heart stays after her death when it becomes apparent that she has willed her entire property to Dunya.
• Zakharovich Marmeladov: Marmeladoy is an alcoholic and an ex-civil servant. Rodion and Semyon suffer from the same ailment poverty and guilt. In spite of his awareness of his addiction, he continues to ruin his life and his family’s and three children until his death.
• Katerina Marmeladov: Katerina is Semyon’s wife. She suffers from tuberculosis as well as her husband’s addiction. She remains honest and hardworking. Although she is from the upper class, she suffers from an abusive husband first. Out of love and kindness , she leaves all her savings to Sonya and her daughter.
• Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin: An arrogant rich person, Luzhin tries his best to deceive Dunya into marriage but Rodion’s timely interference saves her from his deceit.
• Pulcheria Alexandrovna: Pulcheria is Rodion’s mother. She has premonitions about the doom of her son. She later briefs him about the harrowing situations both, she and her daughter, have gone through.

Writing Style of Crime and Punishment

The story is written in third-person narrative and dramatic form. Crime and Punishment exhibit Dostoyevsky’s dexterous use of drama in fiction , using short as well as long sentences and alluring syntax . The most important passages related to philosophy, mental dilemmas, and the moral predicament of all characters are not only catchy but also highly seductive in terms of diction and formality. For literary devices , Dostoyevsky turns to similes, metaphors , and personifications to make his fictional prose vibrant and lively.

Analysis of the Literary Devices in Crime and Punishment

• Action: The main action of the novel comprises the murder of Alyona, a pawnbroker widow, by the protagonist, Raskolnikov, and his post-murder life until his confession and subsequent punishment. The falling action occurs when confesses and is subsequently sent to Siberia as punishment, while the rising action occurs when he kills Alyona and her sister in Alyona’s apartment.
• Allusion : The sentences are examples of allusions, i. The sky was cloudless and the water was almost bright blue, which is so rare in the Neva. The dome of the cathedral, which is seen at its best from the bridge about twenty paces from the chapel, glittered in the sunlight, and in the pure air every ornament on it could be clearly distinguished. (Part -2, Chapter -3) ii. “Oh, damn . . . these are the items of intelligence. An accident on a staircase, spontaneous combustion of a storekeeper from alcohol, a fire in Peski . . . a fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . another fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . and another fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . Ah, here it is!” (Part -2, Chapter -5) Both of these examples allude to the Neva, cathedral, and the Petersburg quarters.
• Anaphora : The following sentence are good examples of anaphora , i. The essential question was settled, and irrevocably settled, in his mind: “Never such a marriage while I am alive, and Mr. Luzhin be damned!” (Chapter -4) ii. Hm . . . So it is finally settled; you have determined to marry a rational business man, Avdotia Romanovna, one who has a fortune (has already made his fortune, that is so much more solid and impressive), a man who holds two government posts and who shares the ideas of our most rising generation, as mother writes, and who ‘seems to be kind,’ as Dunechka herself observes. That seems beats everything! And that very Dunechka is marrying that very ‘seems’! Splendid! splendid! (Chapter -4) iii. He walked on without resting. He had a terrible longing for some distraction, but he did not know what to do, what to attempt. A new overwhelming sensation was gaining more and more mastery over him every moment; it was an immeasurable, almost physical repulsion for everything surrounding him, a stubborn, malignant feeling of hatred. (Part -2, Chapter -3) These examples show the repetitious use of “settled”, “fortune”, “seems” and “what to.”
• Antagonist : There is more than one antagonist in the novel. For example, Luzhin, the fiancé of his sister Dunya, Ilya Petrovic, and the landlady try their best to obstruct Rodion from realizing his dream of achieving greatness.
• Conflict : The novel shows both external and internal conflicts. The external conflict is going on between Rodion and the police about the murder he has committed. However, the internal conflict is his mental conflict about the morality of his action.
• Characters: The novel, Crime and Punishment, shows both static as well as dynamic characters. The young man, Rodion, is a dynamic character as he shows a considerable transformation in his behavior and conduct by the end of the novel after he confesses his crime and goes to Siberia for punishment. However, all other characters are static as they do not show or witness any transformation such as Dunya, Svidrigailov, and Razumikhin including his own mother.
• Climax : The climax in the novel occurs when he accepts his punishment and feels peaceful after he kills the widow, Alyona, and her sister, in their apartment.
• Foreshadowing : The novel has many instances of foreshadows. A few examples are given below, i. On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the tiny room which he rented from tenants in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. Bridge. (Chapter -1) ii. He woke up late next day after a troubled sleep. But his sleep had not refreshed him; he woke up bilious, irritable, ill-tempered, and looked with hatred at his room. (Chapter -3) iii. Instantly he thrust them all under his overcoat and fixed his eyes intently upon her. Far as he was from being capable of rational reflection at that moment, he felt that no-one would behave like that with a person who was going to be arrested. “But . . . The police?” (Part -2, Chapter -1) The mention of the hot evening, hesitation, sleep, and his character traits point to something sinister that Rodion is going to do.
• Imagery : The following sentences are examples of imagery , i. He was, by the way, exceptionally handsome, above average in height, slim, well-built, with beautiful dark eyes and dark brown hair. Soon, though, he sank into deep thought, or more accurately speaking into a complete blankness of mind; he walked along not observing what was around him and not caring to observe it. (Chapter -1) ii. His nervous shudder had passed into a fever that made him feel shivering; in spite of the heat he felt cold. With a kind of effort he began almost unconsciously, from some inner necessity, to stare at all the objects before him, as though looking for something to distract his attention; but he did not succeed, and kept lapsing every moment into brooding. (Chapter-5) iii. He was in full possession of his faculties, free from confusion or giddiness, but his hands were still trembling. He remembered afterwards that he had been particularly cautious and careful, trying all the time not to get stained . . .He pulled out the keys at once, they were all, as before, in one bunch on a steel ring. He ran at once into the bedroom with them. (Chapter -7) These examples show images of length, height, movements, and feelings.
• Metaphor : Crime and Punishment shows good use of metaphors. The following sentences are examples of metaphors, i. It was a long while since he had received a letter, but another feeling also suddenly stabbed his heart. (Chapter -3) ii. A gloomy sensation of agonizing, eternal solitude and remoteness took conscious form in his soul. (Part -2, Chapter -!) These examples show that several things have been compared directly in the novel such as the first shows feeling compared with a knife, isolation compared with the driver of control, and sleep with a lake.
• Mood : The novel, Crime and Punishment, shows a commonplace dull mood in the beginning but turns out highly absurd as well as tragic when Rodion kills the widow. The mood turns to be confusing and ironic when Rodion tries to dodge the police and cope with the confusion and mental torture he comes across after the murder.
• Motif : Most important motifs of the novel, Crime and Punishment, are poverty, vision, mental dilemma, and morality.
• Narrator : The novel, Crime and Punishment, is narrated by the third-person narrator , who happens to be Fyodor Dostoevsky himself.
• Parallelism : The novel shows the use of parallelism in the following examples, i. The landlady who provided him with the room and with dinner and service lived on the floor below, and every time he went out he was obliged to pass her kitchen, the door of which was always open. (Chapter -1) ii. He had given up attending to matters of practical importance; he had lost all desire to do so. (Chapter -1) iii. It would have been difficult to sink to a lower ebb of slovenliness, but to Raskolnikov in his present state of mind this was even agreeable. (Chapter -3) iv. He drove away thought; thought tortured him. (Part -2, Chapter -5) These three examples show the parallel structure of the sentences used by Dostoevsky.
• Paradox : The following sentences show examples of paradox from the novel, i. Almost from the first, while he read the letter, Raskolnikov’s face was wet with tears; but when he finished it, his face was pale and distorted and a bitter, wrathful and malignant smile was on his lips. (Chapter -3) ii. Yes, he remembered that he began laughing a thin, nervous noiseless laugh, and went on laughing all the time he was crossing the square.” (Part -2, Chapter -2) iii. “Evidence against him! Evidence that was no evidence, and that’s what we have to prove. (Part -2, Chapter -4) These examples show that the writer has put paradoxical ideas or things together.
• Personification : The following sentences are examples of personifications, i. The letter was quivering in his hand; he did not want to open it in her presence; he wanted to be left alone with this letter. (Chapter -3) ii. At last he was conscious of his former fever and shivering, and he realized with relief that he could lie down on the sofa. Soon heavy, leaden sleep came over him, as though crushing him. (Chapter -6) iii. “Good evening, Aliona Ivanovna,” he began, trying to speak as casually as possible, but his voice would not obey him, it broke and shook. “I have come . . . I have brought something . . . but we’d better go over here . . . to the light . . .”. (Chapter -7) iv. At first he thought he was going mad. A dreadful chill came over him; but the chill was from the fever that had begun long before in his sleep. (Part -2, Chapter -1) v. At the end of the courtyard, the corner of a low, seedy stone shed, apparently part of some workshop, peeped from behind the hoarding. (Part -2, Chapter -2) These examples show if the letter, sleep, voice, chill, and shed have life and emotions of their own.
• Protagonist : Rodion is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with his entry into the story, his family situation, his own problem, and above all the murder he commits.
• Rhetorical Questions : The following examples of rhetorical questions are given below, i. “Why am I not at the office? Does not my heart ache to think what a useless worm I am? A month ago when Mr. Lebeziatnikov beat my wife with his own hands, and I lay drunk, didn’t I suffer? Excuse me, young man, has it ever happened to you . . . hm . . . well, to ask hopelessly for a loan?” (Chapter -2) ii. But why had he happened to hear just such a discussion and such ideas at the very moment when his own brain was just conceiving . .. the very same ideas? And why, just at the moment when he had brought away the embryo of his idea from the old woman had he happened upon a conversation about her? (Chapter -6) Both examples show the use of rhetorical questions that mostly Rodion does to question his own ideas and situation.
• Repetition : The novel has many examples of repetition . A few are given below, i. In the first place, it was evident, far too evident, actually, that Peter Petrovich had eagerly used his few days in the capital to buy himself a new set of clothes in which to greet his fiancée—which was in fact an entirely innocent, permissible thing to do. (Part -2, Chapter -5) ii. “Oh, damn . . . these are the items of intelligence. An accident on a staircase, spontaneous combustion of a storekeeper from alcohol, a fire in Peski . . . a fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . another fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . and another fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . Ah, here it is!” (Part -2, Chapter -5) These examples show the use of repetitions such as “evident” and “a fir” in which the writer has emphasized the idea.
• Setting : The setting of the novel, Crime and Punishment is St. Petersburg and Siberia in Russia.
• Simile : The following sentences are examples of similes, i. Meanwhile Razumikhin sat down on the sofa beside him, as clumsily as a bear put his left arm round Raskolnikov’s head, although he was able to sit up, and with his right hand gave him a spoonful of soup, blowing on it so it would not burn him. But the soup was only just warm. (Part-2, Chapter-3) ii. The murderer was upstairs, locked in, when Koch and Pestriakov knocked at the door. Koch, like an ass, didn’t stay at the door; so the murderer popped out and ran down, too, because he had no other way of escape. (Part-2, Chapter-4) These use of words “like” and “as” show the comparison between Razumikhin and bear and Koch and an ass.

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• Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Themes and Analysis

Crime and punishment, by fyodor dostoevsky.

'Crime and Punishment' features salient themes that are relevant today as they were in Dostoevsky's Russia.

About the Book

Article written by Israel Njoku

Degree in M.C.M with focus on Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

‘Crime and Punishment’ contains numerous themes, reflecting Dostoevsky’s preoccupation with and response to the flurry of ideologies coming into Russia from Western Europe. Asides from complex ideological issues like nihilism and utilitarianism, everyday relatable issues that occupied Dostoevsky like poverty, suffering, and societal alienation are also addressed within the work.

The Dangerous Effects of Nihilism

One of the key themes of ‘Crime and Punishment’ is the effect of harmful ideologies. The problem here is not simply that an individual comes to wholly believe in a dangerous idea and so carries it out, it is also about the parasitic effects of these dangerous ideas as they slowly corrupt our minds and subtly strip us of control and autonomy, pulling us towards the actualization of its destiny even when our hold of and understandings of these ideas are incomplete and tenuous. 

Before Raskolnikov decided to kill the old pawnbroker whom he had deemed expendable on the basis of her wickedness and nastiness, Raskolnikov had written an article where he argued for the right of a certain class of special, superior men to raise themselves above conventional morality and commit crimes in service of aims they deem noble. 

For Raskolnikov, this means an ascendancy to a Napoleon-like personality who has earned the right to kill and commit all sorts of crimes in service of greatness. This extraordinary person is marked by his capacity to commit this crime and profit off it, feeling neither remorse nor weakness in a manner that would undermine the validity of his ideas, or his greatness. 

The more Raskolnikov became possessed by the truth of this idea, the more he wished to be an extraordinary man, to prove he has the capacity to transcend conventional morality in order to do what Raskolnikov deemed noble. Gradually this small theory assumes the nature of an obsession with proving his strength, and that culminated in the murder of the old pawnbroker. It resisted Raskolnikov’s erstwhile moral conscience.

Even when Raskolnikov gets disgusted at the idea of killing the old woman and feels free from the thoughts, he loses control when he overhears at the Hay market that a prime opportunity for the murder was going to present itself soon with the availability of Alyona alone at the house without her sister, 

Raskolnikov finds himself without any control and is thrust into an autopilot program, driving him to test his theory and prove himself extraordinary. The idea took on a life of its own in Raskolnikov’s head and convinced him of its own validity. But when Raskolnikov tries to justify his murder in terms of it being in service to humanity, he finds that he cannot sincerely explain his motivation that way. He discovered that none of the motivations he put forward in his conversation with Sonia inspired him as much as the simple, selfish desire to prove he was “extraordinary”.

A much less pronounced, but definitely evident, theme in the book is that of Egoism. This is an idea espoused to different degrees by a number of characters in the book-namely the likes of Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov, and Luzhin. It can express itself in a direct, undisguised form in service of evil aims, as we see in Svidrigailov’s behaviors. 

Svidrigailov lives for his pleasures and base desires and is not embarrassed by them. He speaks freely to Raskolnikov about desiring and relishing the effort to get these desires. He lives entirely for his own pleasures and is not concerned about others until the very end. Furthermore, he is ruthless in the pursuit of his own gratification and does not consider a grander, nobler aim, nor pretends to consider it in any way.

Raskolnikov is also similar but up until his real motivation is unraveled and understood, he masks this with a pretense of employing his capacity and actions for a larger good. He convinces himself that he was only killing the old pawnbroker because she was a net negative to humanity and her death would benefit many in terms of redistributing her wealth to the poor and preventing her from being wicked to the vulnerable under her. 

It was not until Raskolnikov was forced to examine his motivations for the murder that he realizes that his main aim for committing the murder wasn’t humanistic altruism but rather a naked, selfish pursuit of power, just the same way Svidrigailov was pursuing pleasures. Luzhin similarly masks his egoism under a front of benevolence. In his first encounter with Raskolnikov and Razumikhin, he argues that private charity was in the end counterproductive to the poor and that there would be a net good to society if those who are privileged focused on themselves and refrain from giving handouts to the poor. This argument is obviously only an excuse to legitimize his miserliness. 

The competing forces of natural good and learned evil

In ‘Crime and Punishment ‘, Raskolnikov seems to struggle with the moral demands of his conscience and that of his adopted nihilistic and rational egoistic philosophical outlook. Possibly resulting from his Christian background or a naturally altruistic and humanistic disposition, Raskolnikov seemed to have a basic constitution that has molded a conscience that inspires him to do good. We see this sentiment in his acts of charity towards the Marmeladovs as well as towards the young girl he saves from the lecherous individual stalking her on the streets. 

However, Raskolnikov has also been exposed to and adopted new dangerous ideas which emphasized a cold utilitarian outlook towards life in service of one’s self-interest. The philosophy of the extraordinary emphasizes his elevation over the troubles of the common people. It encourages a cold, statistical approach to life that sees the common people not as individuals but as numbers.

So just after he rescues the young drunken girl from her stalker, he immediately regrets the action because there were bound to be people like her all the time who will make up the number of people who would be vulnerable to predators, who are condemned to a life of prostitution, diseases, and vulnerability. It was a mathematical and sociological certainty, so why bother trying to interfere? 

Also, when he gives Sonia money after he was dragged to the home of the Marmeladovs, he regrets doing so almost immediately for the same purpose. For large stretches of the book, Raskolnikov struggles between these two competing aspects of his personality. 

The theme of Alienation is a prominent one in ‘ Crime and Punishment ‘. Raskolnikov’s alienation from society as a result of his haughty ideals, as well as his overpowering guilt as a result of his murders, is one of the plot points that move the book. Raskolnikov’s ideas separate him from most of the rest of humanity in theory and principle. His conviction that society is divided between a few superior men and a mass of inferior men sets him on a proud and arrogant path that alienates him from most people whom he views as inferior. 

Although poor and near destitute, Raskolnikov still manages to feel disgusted at the surrounding poverty in his area of St Petersburg. After committing the murders, he is overpowered with guilt and a strong sense that he did not belong with society and with the pure people around him, who are far removed from his destructive and tortured state of mind. His guilt makes him believe he cannot bear to continue to interact and coexist normally with his family and friends, who are good people. 

Helplessness

The theme of helplessness is also featured in ‘ Crime and Punishment ‘. Raskolnikov is a very poor student who is dependent on sacrifices from his mother and sister to be able to sustain himself. Given that his family has high hopes for him and views him as a potential breadwinner, Raskolnikov finds himself under great pressure. 

His poverty strips him of any capacity whatsoever to help his family and realize the expectation placed on him. Worse of all, he could do extremely little to prevent his family from enduring humiliating circumstances like Dunya’s employment at Svidrigailov’s and the prospect of a less than happy marriage with an unsavory character, like Luzhin.

This sense of hopelessness contributes to driving Raskolnikov towards the robbery and murders. Other characters in the novel also find themselves in helpless situations. Marmeledov cannot conquer his addiction and bring himself to stop drinking away the little money the family is able to procure, largely out of Sonia’s prostitution. Sonia herself is helpless against the forces that drove her into a life of prostitution against her will. 

Punishment and Suffering

The theme of suffering and punishment is predominant in the book. The book seems to advance the idea that only commensurate punishment and suffering can put the condemned and guilty on the path to redemption. Repentance is not enough and must be backed by a genuine willingness to pay for one’s sins. After Raskolnikov murders the old pawnbroker, his punishment begins almost immediately after. He suffers from crushing guilt, illness, and self-loathing. He cannot master his conscience, and in the end, he succumbs to it.

His guilt and the triumph of his conscience mean he cannot get away with his crime. He betrays himself and therefore leads himself to be suspected by the authorities. This punishment however can only be expatiated by further punishment. Raskolnikov can only get reprieve and redemption if he confesses publicly to the police and suffers the embarrassment of being thought a fool with crazy ideas and a weak constitution, as well as suffer the disappointment of his family and friends, as well as the loss of his freedom.

Analysis of Key Moments

• Raskolnikov witnesses a young student argue with an army officer over the morality of killing the old, detestable pawnbroker, Alyona.
• Raskolnikov has a dream where he tries to prevent some peasants from heartlessly maltreating a mare
• Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother outlining the interesting events happening at home with his family
• Raskolnikov kills Alyona the pawnbroker and her sister Lizaveta.
• The police begin to suspect Raskolnikov due to his strange behavior at the station after his landlady reports him over unpaid rent.
• Luzhin makes the unfavorable acquaintance of Raskolnikov.
• Dunya and Pulcharia arrive in Saint Petersburg. They are shocked at Raskolnikov’s cold and erratic behavior.
• Dunya breaks off the engagement with Luzhin; A spiteful Luzhin blames Raskolnikov and plans his revenge.
• Svidrigailov tries and fails to rape Dunya
• Porfiry encourages Raskolnikov to confess and accept his suffering in a heart-to-heart talk.
• Raskolnikov confesses his crime to Sonia, then the Police. 
• Raskolnikov repents for real in a Siberian prison and acknowledges the defectiveness of his ideas.

Tone and Style

‘ Crime and Punishment’ is a forerunner of the realistic style that would come to replace the romanticism that was dominant in Western literature at the time. Dostoevsky’s novel is a classic detective story, but the norms of the genre are subverted when we see the killer commit the crime in the first few pages. There is no mystery as regards who committed the crime or the surface level motivations behind it, rather the novel immediately devotes itself to the consequences of the crime on the individual in a psychological, ideological, and spiritual sense.  

Dostoevsky employs realistic descriptions to bring into sharp relief the starkness of Raskolnikov’s poverty, and his very deliberate world-building and scene-setting allow us to glimpse some motivation behind his crime through the skillful use of strong opinionated characters and interesting, realistic dialogues.

Dostoevsky brings forth the opposing arguments he wants to comment on and allows them to fight as fairly as possible in the world in which he has set them out. Dostoevsky lends little outright authorial or editorial presence in the book, as the omniscient narrator stays mostly objective. But Dostoevsky advances his ideas through the mouths of certain characters. Through dreams, Dostoevsky provides clues as to the psychological makeup of the characters, as well as the principal motivations for their actions. 

Analysis of Symbols

The hay market.

A section of St. Petersburg that is reserved for the very poor. This area is the symbol of poverty, and of the common destitute that Raskolnikov feels himself above. There is a distinct sense of filth and wretchedness that Raskolnikov comes to be all too aware of when he passes by. By making Raskolnikov come here to confess, Sonia makes sure Raskolnikov gets the fullest possible punishment for his murders. This is because the hay market is populated by a mass of people whom Raskolnikov despises and thinks are inferior to himself. Confessing here accentuates his humiliation but at the same time fast tracks his redemption.

The cross is a symbol of wilful suffering in service of pious and redemptive aims. Raskolnikov goes to take Sonia’s cross only when he is ready to confess publicly for his sins.

Saint Petersburg

The city of Saint Petersburg was often seen as the most Westernized Russian city, therefore for Slavophiles, or people with slavophilic sentiments in post-Petrine Russia, Saint Petersburg was the most corrupt of Western cities, the city that has strayed farthest from traditional Russian values. The city is depicted this way in ‘Crime and Punishment ‘. Raskolnikov’s descent into the dark extremities of radical ideals begins only after he abandons the conservative society of rural Russia for corrupting Saint Petersburg. The city disgusts Raskolnikov, too, with its stench of filth and poverty and cynical residents. It is infested by “foolish” ideologues, too.

What are the major themes in ‘ Crime and Punishment ?’

‘ Crime and Punishment ‘ contain themes like helplessness, poverty, nihilism, suffering, and alienation, among others.

What did Dostoevsky set out to achieve in ‘ Crime and Punishment ?’

Dostoevsky’s major objective is to display the folly and dangers inherent in radical ideals like utilitarianism, atheism, and nihilism

What literary style did Dostoevsky employ in ‘ Crime and Punishment ?’

Realism. Dostoevsky wrote in a very realistic style, favoring an accurate mimicking of reality over romanticism.

About Israel Njoku

Israel loves to delve into rigorous analysis of themes with broader implications. As a passionate book lover and reviewer, Israel aims to contribute meaningful insights into broader discussions.

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• Lesson Plans
• Teacher's Guides
• Media Resources

Lesson 1: Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

Portrait of the Writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Wikimedia Commons

"Can Dostoevsky Still Kick You in the Gut?" This title is the subject of a recent New Yorker article that evokes more than a nod from readers who have witnessed their fair share of crime and punishments. Dostoyevsky’s character, Raskolnikov, is a brilliant and deeply compassionate young man, stressed by poverty and alienation and driven to commit a terrible crime not unlike some reported in today's news. Dostoyevsky engages 21st-century readers deeply in the thoughts, feelings, and experiences that precede and follow Raskolnikov’s radical step beyond decency. Crime and Punishment is a challenging text that demands much from readers but also leads to more than one "kick in the gut" in discussions of characters, events, and ideas.

Worksheet 1 is provided as an aid for students to record quotations and reflections as they read the novel. The completed worksheets can be extremely useful as sources of textual evidence during discussions and in writing essays.

To begin the lesson activities, students need to have completed their reading through Chapter 1 of Part 3. Worksheet 2 involves an examination of the divided nature of Raskolnikov’s character and personality. Worksheet 3 leads students to uncover the divided natures of other characters—a fact that becomes increasingly evident as the novel progresses.

Worksheet 4 offers an optional extension activity at the conclusion of the lesson comparing and contrasting a brief passage using three popular translations of the novel. It is important for readers to remember that, in reading a translation, one is not looking at the writer’s actual choices of diction and syntax, but at someone else’s interpretations of those choices.

This lesson is one part of a three lesson unit about Crime and Punishment. The three lessons may be taught in sequence or each lesson may stand on its own. Teachers may link to the full unit with Guiding Questions, College and Career Readiness standards and Background. Lesson 1 aligns with CCSS ELA LITERACY RL 11-12.1.

Guiding Questions

Can individuals live outside of society?

When do the ends justify the means?

What does the psychology of a crime mean in comparison to the punishment?

Learning Objectives

Analyze Dostoevsky's portrayals of dualistic personality traits in the main character and other characters

Lesson Plan Details

To begin lesson activities, students will have read Crime and Punishment Parts 1, 2, and Chapter 1 of Part 3.

Access to dictionaries

Worksheet 1. Double Entry Reading Journal

Worksheet 2. A Close Look at Raskolnikov’s Divided Self

Worksheet 2. A Close Look at Raskolnikov’s Divided Self (teacher version)

Worksheet 3. Divided Natures

Worksheet 3. Divided Natures (teacher version)

Worksheet 4. Comparing/Contrasting Translations (optional)

Activity 1. Dualistic Portrayal of Characters

Present the old adage: A house divided against itself cannot stand. Explain that it has biblical roots and was used by Abraham Lincoln in a speech before the American Civil War.

Ask students to unpack its meaning. A country, business, family, or individual torn by dissension and differences is bound to fail.

Ask students what they see in Rodion Raskolnikov’s name.

Have them look up “Raskolnik” in a dictionary. Clarify that the word derives from a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church and means “division” or “schism.” Why would Dostoevsky have chosen this name for this character?

( Suggested answer : His name derives from “Raskolnik,” a term that originated from a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church. Students come to see that, far from being an integrated person, the protagonist is torn by conflicting impulses. He is both instinctively compassionate and coldly brutal. He is capable of deep love and affection but tends to isolate and distance himself from others. As the novel as a whole demonstrates, he is incapable of the kind of callousness necessary to get away with his crime. )

Have small groups use Worksheet 2 to analyze the divided nature of Raskolnikov’s character as he is portrayed from the very beginning of the novel.

Follow with whole-class review, using Worksheet 2: teacher version . 

Read aloud Razumihin’s description of Raskolnikov during his conversation with Dounia and Pulcheria in Chapter 2 of Part 3. Have students discuss the many ways that his views parallel those revealed during the completion and discussion of Worksheet 2. On one hand, Raskolnikov is noble and generous; he is also cold and loveless.

Have students complete Worksheet 3 as a basis for discussion of other characters. (Point out that a full understanding of characters necessitates knowledge of the entire novel.) Readers’ perspectives shift as the author reveals additional information. Follow with class discussion. See Worksheet 3. teacher version .

Lesson 1 follow-up discussion questions. Use textual evidence to support your answers:

• Is there symbolic significance in the dream about the peasant and horse? Why is Raskolnikov so repulsed by the dream? (Part 1, Chapter 5)
• Raskolnikov is desperately poor, but what does he do with money when it comes his way? Why?
• Why does the overheard conversation in the bar, in which a student speaks intellectually about the possibility of murder have such a great impact on Raskolnikov? What does it suggest about the mood of young intellectuals at that time in that place? (Part 1, Chapter 6)
• Viewed superficially, Sonia can be described as both saint and sinner. Do you think this description is accurate? Why or why not?
• What aspects of the text suggest that the protagonist is bound to end up badly? Is it possible that he can move on from murder to live a normal life?
• Does anything suggest that there is hope for Raskolnikov—that he is not destined for ruin and perhaps insanity?
• Which characters in the novel have won your sympathy? Why? Have you come to dislike any of them? Why, or why not?

Have students write a short essay on Dostoevsky's view of human nature as it is revealed in the novel. Emphasize that this assignment involves analysis of one of the work's many significant themes. Students are not simply analyzing characterization; they are analyzing thematic implications. Require use of textual support, including judiciously chosen quotations, and original thinking.

[To ensure that the essay provides a venue for original thought beyond content of the classroom discussion, it is best not to provide examples or suggestions for development except in the context of consultations with individual students. If necessary turn to the EDSITEment literary glossary for a review of the term theme .]

Optional Lesson Extension

Point out that students are reading a translation of the novel Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, not his original words. The meaning behind the word or combination of words is sometimes not readily translatable. At that point, a translator has to adopt other methods. As students probably know from their own experiences in foreign language classes or situations, effective translation depends on thorough knowledge of two languages. The translator or translating team needs to be cognizant of words’ denotations and connotations and sensitive to ways a translation can communicate the original writer’s tone and style.

Distribute Worksheet 4 , and ask students to complete the exercise. Follow with discussion in which students describe similarities and differences among the translations.

Suggested answers

Similarities:

• All three translations mention hypochondria and a failure to listen to what others have to say;
• All three translations also stress the idea students discussed in working with Worksheet 2 , Raskolnikov’s divided nature.

Differences:

• In the second translation, Razumihin does not speak in complete sentences, as if he is stating ideas thoughtfully as they come to mind;
• The McDuff translation does not explicitly include the good qualities mentioned in the other two, and "chap" has a British sound; it includes no clue as to why the two young men would be friends.

Follow the discussion by asking students to indicate whether they prefer one translation over the others, and have them explain reasons with textual evidence in their answers.

Materials & Media

Crime and punishment: worksheet 1. double entry reading journal, crime and punishment: worksheet 2. a close look at raskolnikov’s divided self, crime and punishment: worksheet 2. a close look at raskolnikov’s divided self (teacher version), crime and punishment: worksheet 3. divided natures, crime and punishment: worksheet 3. divided natures (teacher version), crime and punishment: worksheet 4. comparing/contrasting translations, related on edsitement, lesson 2: man and superman, lesson 3: societal schisms and divisions.

• Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Literature Notes
• Essay Questions
• Book Summary
• About Crime and Punishment
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Part 1: Chapter 1
• Part 1: Chapter 2
• Part 1: Chapter 3
• Part 1: Chapter 4
• Part 1: Chapter 5
• Part 1: Chapter 6
• Part 1: Chapter 7
• Part 2: Chapter 1
• Part 2: Chapter 2
• Part 2: Chapter 3
• Part 2: Chapter 4
• Part 2: Chapter 5
• Part 2: Chapter 6
• Part 2: Chapter 7
• Part 3: Chapter 1
• Part 3: Chapter 2
• Part 3: Chapter 3
• Part 3: Chapter 4
• Part 3: Chapter 5
• Part 3: Chapter 6
• Part 4: Chapter 1
• Part 4: Chapter 2
• Part 4: Chapter 3
• Part 4: Chapter 4
• Part 4: Chapter 5
• Part 4: Chapter 6
• Part 5: Chapter 1
• Part 5: Chapter 2
• Part 5: Chapter 3
• Part 5: Chapter 4
• Part 5: Chapter 5
• Part 6: Chapter 1
• Part 6: Chapter 2
• Part 6: Chapter 3
• Part 6: Chapter 4
• Part 6: Chapter 5
• Part 6: Chapter 6
• Part 6: Chapter 7
• Part 6: Chapter 8
• Character Analysis
• Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov
• Sonya Semyonova Marmeladov
• Arkady Svidrigailov
• Porfiry Petrovitch
• Character Map
• Fyodor Dostoevsky Biography
• Critical Essays
• Raskolnikov: A Dual or Split Personality
• The Redemptive Characters: Sonya and Porfiry
• The Ubermensch or Extraordinary Man Theories
• Full Glossary for Crime and Punishment
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Study Help Essay Questions

1. What concepts of Law are prominent in Crime and Punishment ? What new legal techniques and psychological methods does Porfiry employ?

2. What concepts of Christianity are prominent in Crime and Punishment ? Why didn't Raskolnikov read the story of Lazarus himself or why did he ask Sonya to read it to him?

3. Discuss briefly the rationale by which Raskolnikov considers himself a superior man.

4. What are the laws governing the extraordinary man?

5. How might Raskolnikov answer the objection that his theory is only an attempt to justify unrestrained self-will?

6. How does Dostoevsky forestall the reader's assumption that his central character is simply mad?

7. How is Svidrigailov shown to represent one aspect of Raskolnikov's character?

8. When Raskolnikov is with Svidrigailov, what repulses him about the man?

9. What attracts Raskolnikov, the intellectual, to the simple and uneducated Sonya?

10. Why does Svidrigailov commit suicide?

11. How do dreams function in the novel?

12. What is the function of the Epilogue?

Previous Full Glossary for Crime and Punishment

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The Lockdown Lessons of “Crime and Punishment”

By David Denby

At the end of “ Crime and Punishment ,” which was completed in 1866, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s hero, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, has a dream that so closely reflects the roilings of our own pandemic one almost shrinks from its power. Here’s part of it, in Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s rendering :

He had dreamed that the whole world was doomed to fall victim to some terrible, as yet unknown and unseen pestilence spreading to Europe from the depths of Asia. Everyone was to perish, except for certain, very few, chosen ones. Some new trichinae had appeared, microscopic creatures that lodged themselves in men’s bodies. But these creatures were spirits, endowed with reason and will. Those who received them into themselves immediately became possessed and mad. But never, never had people considered themselves so intelligent and unshakeable in the truth as did these infected ones. Never had they thought their judgments, their scientific conclusions, their moral convictions and beliefs more unshakeable. Entire settlements, entire cities and nations would be infected and go mad. Everyone became anxious, and no one understood anyone else; each thought the truth was contained in himself alone, and suffered looking at others, beat his breast, wept, and wrung his hands. They did not know whom or how to judge, could not agree on what to regard as evil, what as good. They did not know whom to accuse, whom to vindicate.

What is this passage doing there, a few pages before the novel concludes? Recall what leads up to the dream. Raskolnikov, a twenty-three-year-old law-school dropout, tall, blond, and “remarkably good-looking,” lives in a “cupboard” in St. Petersburg and depends on handouts from his mother and sister. Looking for money, he plans and executes the murder of an old pawnbroker, a “useless, nasty, pernicious louse,” as he calls her; and then kills her half sister, who stumbles onto the murder scene. He makes off with the pawnbroker’s purse, but then, mysteriously, buries it in an empty courtyard.

Is it really money that he wants? His motives are less mercenary than, one might say, experimental. He has apparently been reading Hegel on “world-historical” figures. Great men like Napoleon, he believes, commit all sorts of crimes in their ascent to power; once they have attained eminence, they are hailed as benefactors to mankind, and no one holds them responsible for their early deeds. Could he be such a man?

In the days after the crime, Raskolnikov vacillates between exhilaration and fits of guilty behavior, spilling his soul in dreams and hallucinations. Under the guidance of an eighteen-year-old prostitute, Sonya, who embodies what Raskolnikov sees as “ insatiable compassion,” he eventually confesses the crime, and is sent to a prison in Siberia. As she waits for him in a nearby village, he falls ill and has that feverish dream.

For us, the dream poses a teasing question: Is it just a morbidly eccentric summation of the novel, or is it also an unwitting prediction of where we are going? Dostoyevsky was a genius obsessed with social disintegration in his own time. He wrote so forcefully that Raskolnikov’s dream, encountered now, expresses what we are, and what we fear we might become.

I first read “Crime and Punishment” in 1961, when I was a freshman at Columbia University, as part of Literature Humanities, or Lit Hum, as everyone calls it, a required yearlong course for entering students. In small classes, the freshmen traverse such formidable peaks as Homer’s and Virgil’s epics, Greek tragedies, scriptural texts, Augustine and Dante, Montaigne and Shakespeare; Jane Austen entered the list in 1985, and Sappho, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison followed. I took the course again in 1991, writing a long report on the experience. In the fall of 2019, at the border of old age—I was seventy-six—I began taking it for the third time, and for entirely selfish reasons. In your mid-seventies, you need a jolt now and then, and works like “ Oedipus Rex ” give you a jolt. What I hadn’t expected, however, was to encounter catastrophe not just in the pages of our reading assignments but far beyond them.

In April, when the class began eight hours of discussion about “Crime and Punishment,” the campus had been shut down for four weeks. The students had arrived in New York the previous fall from a wide range of places and backgrounds, and now they had returned to them, scattering across the country, and the globe—to the Bronx, to Charlottesville, to southern Florida, to Sacramento, to Shanghai. My wife and I stayed where we were, in our apartment, a couple of subway stops south of the university, sequestered, empty of purpose, waiting for something to happen. I trailed listlessly around the apartment, and found it hard to sleep after a long day’s inactivity. I loitered in the kitchen in front of a small TV screen, like a supplicant awaiting favor from his sovereign. Ritual, the religious say, expresses spiritual necessity. At 7 P.M. , I stood at the window, just past the TV, and banged on a pot with a wooden spoon, in the city’s salute to front-line workers in the pandemic. Raskolnikov has been holed up in his room for a month at the beginning of “Crime and Punishment.” Thirty days, give or take, was how long I had been cut off from life when I began reading the book again.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, instead of making my way across College Walk and up the stairs to a seminar room in Hamilton Hall, I logged on to our class from home. The greetings at the beginning of each class were like sighs—not defeated, exactly, but wan. Our teacher, as always, was Nicholas Dames, a fixture in Columbia’s English Department. Professor Dames is a compact man in his late forties, with dark, deep-set eyes and a touch of dark mustache and dark beard around the edge of his jaw. He has been teaching Lit Hum, on and off, for two decades. He has one of those practiced teacher’s voices, a little dry but penetrating, and the irreplaceable gift of never being boring. At the beginning of the class, his face shadowed by two glaring windows on either side of him, he would struggle for a moment with Zoom. “This doesn’t feel like the experience we all signed up for,” he said. He couldn’t hear the students breathe, or feel them shift in their chairs, or watch them take notes or drift off. But his voice broke through the murk.

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Nick Dames led the students through close readings of individual passages, linking them back, by the end of class, to the structure of the entire book. He is also a historicist, and has done extensive work on the social background of literature. He wanted us to know that nineteenth-century Petersburg—which Dostoyevsky miraculously rendered both as a real city and as a malevolent fantasy—was an impressive disaster. In the early eighteenth century, Peter the Great had commanded an army of architects and disposable serfs to build the place as a “rational” enterprise, intended to rival the great capitals of Western Europe. But, Professor Dames said, “ecologically, it was a failure.” Prone to flooding, the city had trouble disposing of sewage, which often found its way into the drinking water; in 1831, Petersburg was devastated by a cholera epidemic, and ordinary citizens, battered by quarantines and cordons, gathered in protests that turned into riots. After 1861, when Alexander II abolished serfdom, Professor Dames said, peasants came pouring in, looking for work. It was an unhealthy place, and it “wasn’t built for the population it was starting to have.” He put a slide on the screen, with a quotation from “The Metropolis and Mental Life” (1903), by the German sociologist Georg Simmel:

The psychological basis of the metropolitan type of individuality consists in the intensification of nervous stimulation which results from the swift and uninterrupted change of outer and inner stimuli . . . the rapid crowding of changing images, the sharp discontinuity in the grasp of a single glance, the unexpectedness of onrushing impressions.

“The rootlessness that Simmel writes about comes from detachment and debt,” Professor Dames said. “And it produces a constant paranoia—a texture of the illogical. And dreams become very important.”

Dostoyevsky ignores the magnificent imperial buildings, the huge public squares. He writes about street life—the voluble drunks, the lost girls, and the hungry children entertaining for kopecks. His Petersburg comes off as a carnival world without gaiety, a society that is neither capitalist nor communist but stuck in some inchoate transitional situation—an imperial city without much of a middle class. It seems to be missing the one aspect of life that insures survival: work. “With very few exceptions, everybody in the novel rents,” Professor Dames observed. “They are constantly moving among apartments that they can’t afford.” Social ties were frayed. “And the absence of social structure destroys families,” he said. “To the extent that families exist, they are really porous.”

Cast in this light, Raskolnikov’s rage against the pawnbroker looked quite different. He and a few of the other characters are barely clinging to remnants of status or wealth: a dubious connection with a provincial nobleman; a tenuous prospect of a meaningless job; or a semi-valuable possession, like an old watch. No wonder they hate the pawnbroker who helps keep them afloat, Alyona Ivanovna, “a tiny, dried-up old crone, about sixty, with sharp spiteful little eyes.” Raskolnikov is in a wrath of dispossession.

The city that Dostoyevsky experienced and Raskolnikov inhabited had long been a hothouse of reformist and radical ideas. In 1825, Petersburg was the center of the Decembrist Revolt, in which a group of officers led three thousand men against Nicholas I, who had just assumed the throne. The Tsar broke the revolt with artillery fire. In the late eighteen-forties, Dostoyevsky, then in his twenties, was a member of the Petrashevsky Circle, a group of literary men who met regularly to discuss reorganizing Russian society (which, for some members, included the overthrow of the tsarist regime). He was arrested, subjected to a terrifying mock execution, and sent off to Siberia, where he pored over the New Testament. By the time he returned to Petersburg, in 1859, he believed in Mother Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, and hated both radicalism and bourgeois liberalism. He put his ideological shift to supreme advantage: he was now the master of both radical and reactionary temperaments. “Crime and Punishment” is a religious writer’s notion of what happens to an unstable young man possessed by utopian thinking. Dostoyevsky certainly knew what was simmering below the surface: in March, 1881, a month after the novelist died, two bomb-throwers from a revolutionary group assassinated the reformist Tsar Alexander II in Petersburg. Thirty-six years later, Lenin returned to the city from exile and led the Bolsheviks to power. Raskolnikov was a failed yet spiritually significant spectre haunting the ongoing disaster.

The lively discussions around our seminar table earlier in the year were hard to sustain among so many screens; the students were often silent in their separate enclosures. But, as Professor Dames sorted through the form of the novel and the many contradictions of Raskolnikov, one student, whom I’ll call Antonio, burst out of the dead space.

“He’s arrogant,” Antonio said. “Self-righteous.” He noted that Raskolnikov seemed unbound by the rules that bound others. “But there’s something very appealing about this great-man idea,” he ventured. “Is this possible? Could somebody incarnate ‘the world spirit’ by murdering two women with an axe and getting away with it flawlessly? That some of us are rooting for Raskolnikov is a reflection of that question. Is someone really capable of rationalizing such a horrible action? After the twentieth century, this becomes a challenging question. What kind of person would you have to be to get away with it?”

Antonio, from Sacramento, was slender, a runner, with large glasses and a radiant smile. He had had a good education in a Jesuit school, and, at nineteen, he was erudite and attentive, abundant in sentences that sounded as if they could have been written. Listening to him, you heard a flicker of identification with the theory-minded murderer.

For all Raskolnikov’s sullen self-consciousness, he has moments of fellow-feeling and righteous anger. His family and friends adore him; even the insinuating and masterly investigator, Porfiry, believes that dear Rodya is worth fighting for. In our class, Raskolnikov’s feelings about the vulnerability of women—an important issue in “Crime and Punishment”—stirred a number of students, especially one I’ll call Julia, who often returned to the theme. There was the matter of Raskolnikov’s sister, Dunya, a provincial beauty, extremely intelligent but almost impoverished and therefore the victim of insolent monetary bids for her hand from two despicable middle-aged suitors. The situation incenses Raskolnikov.

“He firmly believes his sister is prostituting herself,” Julia said. “He has what seems to me a very radical and even progressive thought—marriage is a form of prostitution, a form of slavery. It’s kind of Catharine MacKinnon.”

Julia, who came from a Catholic Cuban family, had been an embattled feminist in her South Florida high school, which was filled with MAGA boys. In class, she hesitated for a second, but then, grinning in complicity with herself, moved swiftly through complicated feminist and social-justice ideas. Raskolnikov was a puzzle for her. “He’s using this philosophical defense to separate himself from the murder,” she said. Yet he wants to protect women, not just his sister but hapless young girls in the street. Was his interest a case of male “triumphalism”—a way of enhancing his power over women by helping them? Dostoyevsky’s writing about the subservient status of women was as outraged as anything the Brontës had produced, with the Russian additive of persistent violence. The male characters, telling stories in jocular tones, assume their right to beat women. “ ‘She’s my property,’ ” Julia mimicked. “ ‘I could have beaten her more.’ ” In the course of the novel, three different women, all given to extravagant tirades—a Dostoyevsky specialty—fall apart and die in early middle age.

I couldn’t escape the novel’s larger theme of decline: the incoherence of Petersburg, the breakdown of social ties, the drunkenness and violence. At that moment in April, our own city felt largely empty, but I often imagined American streets filled with jobless people, some clinging to hopes of returning to work, many without such hopes. We were halfway through the novel, halfway to the confusion and proud madness of Raskolnikov’s dream. Would we go the other half? Julia’s feminist reading, new for me, opened still another connection. The newspapers were reporting that domestic abuse had gone up among couples locked together. Women were now being punished, as the critic Jacqueline Rose would note, for the recent liberties they had achieved.

Looking for present-day resonances, I knew, was a grim and limited way of reading this work. “Crime and Punishment” is about many things—the psychology of crime, the destiny of families, the vanity and anguish of single men adrift. But, midway through the book, Dostoyevsky’s writerly exuberance allayed my worries. He’s an inspired entertainer, with his own hectic style of comedy. His characters show up reciting their troubles and lineages, their lives “hanging out on their tongues,” as the critic V. S. Pritchett put it. I was now sequestered in a welter of betrayals and loyalties, gossip and opinion: the assorted virtuous and vicious people in the book believe in manners, but they never stop talking about one another. Even the company of Dostoyevsky’s buffoons was liberating.

And Dostoyevsky’s extremity—his savage inwardness, his apocalyptic feverishness—had never felt so right. How many millions were now locked in their rooms muttering vile thoughts to themselves, or wondering about the point of their existence? He wrote about the absolute rationality of evil and the absurd necessity of goodness. He taunted himself and his readers with alarming propositions: What happens to man without God and immortal life? Big questions can result in banality, but when an idea is put forward in Dostoyevsky’s fiction it goes someplace—runs up against an opposing one, or is developed and refuted two hundred pages later. Such contradictions notably exist within characters. Dostoyevsky turned Raskolnikov’s unconscious into a field of action.

The students had returned to familiar surroundings (dogs barked in the background), but they had three or four other courses—not to mention all the anxieties of a precarious future—to contend with. Their college careers were messed up, their friendships interrupted, their campus activities and summer internships wiped out. As we read together in April, the university’s hospital, New York-Presbyterian, was filled with victims of the pandemic. Across the city, hundreds of them were dying every day. So many elements of our civilization had shut down: churches, schools, and universities; libraries, bookstores, research institutes, and museums; opera companies, concert organizations, and movie houses; theatre and dance groups; galleries, studios, and local arts groups of all kinds (not to mention local bars). Who knew what would perish and what would come back?

The students were discomfited, often quiet, almost abashed. In between classes, they sent Professor Dames their responses to the reading, and he used their notes to pull them into the conversation. As we approached the final dream and its awful picture of social breakdown, I continued searching the novel for indications of what could summon so dreadful a vision—and also of what suggested its opposite, a possibly more benevolent world that was also presaged by Dostoyevsky’s whirling contraries. In class, the conversation turned toward questions of moral indifference and sympathy. What obligations did we have to one another? Was there any redemptive value in suffering? For Americans, that last question was strange, even repellent, but in mid-April the language of hardship was all around us.

Antonio remained fascinated by the idea that one might achieve greatness by doing wrong in the service of a larger right. But during the crime itself Raskolnikov falls into an abstracted near-trance and does one stupid thing after another. Antonio had noted that Raskolnikov, standing in a police station, faints dead away when someone mentions the pawnbroker: “His body shuts off. The consequences of the act become unstoppable, even if you try to take intellectual approaches to prevent yourself from getting caught.” Antonio’s flirtation with the murderer was short-lived.

Raskolnikov blurts out many griefs and ambitions, but is never able to say exactly what propelled his actions. Dostoyevsky doesn’t want the reader to solve the mystery: he makes the crime both overdetermined and incoherently motivated. It was hard to judge a young man so intricately composed, and, when Professor Dames asked, “Do we want him to get away with it?,” he got no better than a mixed response. Raskolnikov wants, and doesn’t want, to escape punishment. His sulfurous inner monologues alternate between contempt for others and contempt for himself. Professor Dames, answering his own question, said that Dostoyevsky creates extraordinary suspense, but it’s psychological suspense: “Is he going to crack?”

Dostoyevsky intended moral suspense as well: Would Raskolnikov come to recognize that what he did was absolutely wrong? In the last third of the novel, the gentle but persistent Sonya offers a way out for him. “She’s not coming to Raskolnikov from a position of judgment,” Professor Dames said, “nor from a position of implied moral superiority. She’s saying, ‘We are two sinners.’ ” A deeply religious girl, she had taken to working the streets in a failed effort to save her crumbling family, and must endure Raskolnikov’s taunt that she has given up her happiness for nothing. In return, she presses him hard: Was he capable of acknowledging his own misery? The subsequent conversion of the snarling former student to Sonya’s doctrine—the necessity of suffering and salvation through Christ—is perhaps the most resolutely asexual seduction in all of literature. What could it mean for us?

In the next class, we were guided through the epilogue. Raskolnikov is in a prison camp, and Dostoyevsky’s narration shifts to a more removed, third-person voice. “For the first time, we’re outside Raskolnikov’s head in a sustained way,” Professor Dames said. “We’re separated from psychology, and it feels like a loss.” But Julia said she felt “relief,” and quoted the narrator’s remark about Raskolnikov: “Instead of dialectics, there was life.” By dialectics, Dostoyevsky meant all the theories plaguing the former student. A young man with a head crammed full of ideas, Raskolnikov needed “air.”

And what was “air” in this claustrophobic novel? The word, Professor Dames said, “was an articulation of something transcendental, certainly religious.” Julia was right to steer us to the line “Instead of dialectics, there was life.” It was the most important sentence in the novel. “But what is meant by ‘life’?” Professor Dames asked. Raskolnikov tries strenuously to shape that life, but in the end transcendence comes from a surrender of individuality, not an assertion of it. “The novel is a strong rebuke to individual happiness and individual rights and autonomy,” he said. At the end of the class, Zoom froze on Professor Dames, and he remained immobile on my screen, his dark eyes staring straight ahead. We all needed air.

The final dream is lodged in the novel’s epilogue. That dream is a creepy invention, evoking the genres of science fiction and horror: “Here and there people would band together, agree among themselves to do something, swear never to part—but immediately begin something completely different from what they themselves had just suggested, begin accusing one another, fighting, stabbing.” The struggle has a sinister dénouement: the few survivors of the disease are “pure and chosen, destined to begin a new generation of people and a new life.” The dream presents a vision of society even more feral than the author’s rendering of Petersburg earlier in the novel. Surely it’s also an extreme expression of Raskolnikov’s mind: having murdered two people, he now wants to murder the multitudes. But isn’t it the opposite as well? An expression of Raskolnikov’s sympathy, a boundless pity for a collapsing world? He remains complex and contradictory to the end.

I wasn’t the only reader in April to be alarmed by the dream of an “unknown and unseen pestilence.” As Julia wrote me in an e-mail, the dream was science fiction, but political science fiction; the notion of a few special survivors suggested a master race, a new form of white male privilege. She also saw the dream as reflecting on us. “I noticed that the infected persons who are stubborn in their beliefs to the point of madness bear a striking resemblance to Americans trying to talk politics,” she wrote. “The mobs of people described by Dostoyevsky recalled photos I saw of conservative folks in Michigan protesting stay-at-home orders at the capitol. The expressions on their faces and their screams, so convinced that their moral convictions are correct.” And Antonio wrote to me that “people can’t agree on what’s right and wrong, and, in our case, we know that ambiguity concerning the future can make people restless and highly partisan when reason and compassion is what’s needed in this situation.” His hope was that “we can humble ourselves enough to realize where we’ve gone wrong, to throw ourselves at the feet of the ‘insatiable compassion’ that Sonya represents and emerge better people. If we can do that, then we won’t have to simply survive.”

Two months later, my classmates had survived one experiment—the strangeness of intimate reading through remote learning. But the struggle for clarity and understanding had intensified on so many fronts. I thought of all the people acting with courage and generosity, not just the front-line warriors and the outsiders who rushed to New York to help when the outbreak began but the many people who created communities of faith or art online, or sent out all manner of useful advice on how to resist despair. The marchers protesting the murder of George Floyd and all that it symbolizes risked disease to express solidarity with one another. As the summer began, Antonio, to make money, found work at a nearby country club—cleaning floors, windows, and golf carts. He told me that it was hard for him to “think about the future, because of the current situation, with the protests and the pandemic,” although he didn’t rule out a job in government. Julia was interning for a legal nonprofit, and making plans to become a human-rights lawyer, perhaps for Amnesty International.

Every day, in Trump’s America, it seemed as though we were coming closer to the annihilating turmoil—the mixed state of vexation and fear—in Raskolnikov’s dream. The disease was everywhere, and it only heightened our world’s fissures and inequities. More than a hundred thousand had died, tens of millions were unemployed, many were hungry, and, at times, the country appeared to be unravelling. Some spoke of racism as a “virus,” the American virus; and the language of disease, though it miscasts a human-made scourge as a natural phenomenon, captures just how profoundly it has infiltrated the life of the country. The President’s every statement, meanwhile, was designed to widen chaos. He spoke of the need to “dominate,” and many of us were determined not to be dominated. We would not lose our individuality, like the poor murderer in his exile. But neither could we escape responsibility for the mess we had made, a mess we had bequeathed to the students, and to all of the next generation. I kept returning to Dostoyevsky’s book, looking for signs of how collective purpose can heal social divisions and injustices, stoking hope and resolve alongside fear, anything that would overtake the desperate anomie that Raskolnikov’s dream had conjured: “In the cities, the bells rang all day long: everyone was being summoned, but no one knew who was summoning them or why.” ♦

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By Edwidge Danticat

By John J. Lennon

Youth Crime and Punishment Essay

Introduction, causes of youth crime, types of crimes committed by youth, the law on youth criminals/punishment, works cited.

Crime can be described as a deviant behavior that violates the prevailing norms or cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave normally (Gary 4). Statistics state that the youth crime rate has increased over the years but the big question is how has that happened and why. The current generation youth has been exposed to so many immoral behaviors and they desire to ape what is happening around them. Parents, teachers, media and peer groups are largely to be blamed for these results because they are the ideal tool of control to the youth. In the United States and Canada, youth has resulted to commit crimes in defense of discriminatory acts.

The “rod” what happened to it? Is it part of the blame? Drug related crimes, homicides committed by youth and even property crimes just to mention but a few are crimes that the youth commit. Punishment is seen as one way of tackling and minimizing the crime rates but has it been effective? If the law enforcers have voted it in and made sure it is in action the why is the crime rates among the youth taking its toll in the society (Gary 23).

There are major risk factors that lead the youth to commit crime which include; Parental supervision and discipline which is characterized with harsh and erratic parental discipline, cold or rejecting parental attitudes has led to the children lacking inhibition against offending. Parental conflict and separation also contributes to the youth crimes. Having separated parents or a broken home does not create the high risk of offending rather the parental conflict which led to the separation.

Social and Economic deprivation are important factors contributing to antisocial behavior and crime. Research states that the risk of becoming criminally involved is higher for young people raised in disorganized inner city areas, characterized by physical deterioration and overcrowded households (Donald 473).

Drug related offenses are prevalent; also property crime rates have been evident especially in the schools. Research states that1 in 10 youth crimes occurred on school property, assaults being the most prevalent offenses (27%).Homicides among teenagers have contributed negatively to the society especially among the victims (Gary 46).

The question has been why has the crime rates been so much adverse yet the law on the youth crimes is being enforced? There has been an alarm over youth crimes but few efforts reduce the rate offer partial solutions to the problem. Many crime-control projects have been initiated but there is little appreciable effect. Some of the experts believe that locking up large numbers of the worst offenders would bring reduction but others question the applicability of such a move (Bureau of Justice Statistics 162). Therefore, we see that punishment on the youth crimes have not had any effect whatsoever. This implicates that the society continues to become rotten because the law has failed to do its part.

Based on the above we need to look for strategies which will be effective and control or even rehabilitate the offenders among the youth. First, the causes should be looked at in depth and thoroughly scrutinized. This is the most basic thing which should be done to come up with effective resolutions. The reason is that we are answering the question ‘why do the youth go out and commit offenses?’ what drives them to offend is what should be dealt with first. Issues of parental conflict, socio-economic issues, and harsh discipline from the parents should be addressed adequately. They should pass a law that makes it mandatory for parent to take parental class so as to bring up their children in a socially acceptable way. Secondly the law enforcers should look at what went wrong to the laws they are following and make quick amendments which will be fair and effective to both the youth and the society.

Bureau of Justice Statistics. Performance Measures for the Criminal Justice System: Discussion from the BJS-Princeton Project. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, 1993. 152-179.

Cressey, Donald R. “Crime: I. Causes of Crime.” vol. 3. New York: Macmillan and Free Press, 1968. 471–476.

LaFree, Gary. Losing Legitimacy: Street Crime and the Decline of Social Institutions in America. Boulder, Colo.: West view, 1998. 3-52.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, October 23). Youth Crime and Punishment. https://ivypanda.com/essays/youth-crime-and-punishment/

"Youth Crime and Punishment." IvyPanda , 23 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/youth-crime-and-punishment/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Youth Crime and Punishment'. 23 October.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Youth Crime and Punishment." October 23, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/youth-crime-and-punishment/.

1. IvyPanda . "Youth Crime and Punishment." October 23, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/youth-crime-and-punishment/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Youth Crime and Punishment." October 23, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/youth-crime-and-punishment/.

• Homicides Associated With Homosexual Lifestyle
• Female Offending: Persistent and Late Onset
• Analysis of Homicides in St. Louis
• Offending Patterns Between Genders
• Race Factor in Offending & Victimization Rates
• Juvenile Detention and Desistance from Offending
• Gun Shows in Relation to Suicides and Homicides
• Routine activities theory: A unique theory that attempts to explain both offending and victimization
• Offending Increase Among the Imprisoned Teenagers
• The Use of Force by Law Enforcers
• Role of Religion in Juvenile Prevention and Correction
• Can Early Childhood Intervention Prevent Delinquency?
• “Weeping in the Playtime of Others” by K. Wooden
• Juvenile Delinquents in Adult Court
• Crime Policy and Practices: Trying Juveniles as Adults

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Violent crime is a key midterm voting issue, but what does the data say?

Political candidates around the United States have released thousands of ads focusing on violent crime this year, and most registered voters see the issue as very important in the Nov. 8 midterm elections. But official statistics from the federal government paint a complicated picture when it comes to recent changes in the U.S. violent crime rate.

With Election Day approaching, here’s a closer look at voter attitudes about violent crime, as well as an analysis of the nation’s violent crime rate itself. All findings are drawn from Center surveys and the federal government’s two primary measures of crime : a large annual survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and an annual study of local police data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

This Pew Research Center analysis examines the importance of violent crime as a voting issue in this year’s congressional elections and provides the latest available government data on the nation’s violent crime rate in recent years.

The public opinion data in this analysis is based on a Center survey of 5,098 U.S. adults, including 3,993 registered voters, conducted Oct. 10-16, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology . Here are the questions used in the survey , along with responses, and its methodology .

The government crime statistics cited here come from the National Crime Victimization Survey , published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the National Incident-Based Reporting System , published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For both studies, 2021 is the most recent year with available data.

Around six-in-ten registered voters (61%) say violent crime is very important when making their decision about who to vote for in this year’s congressional elections. Violent crime ranks alongside energy policy and health care in perceived importance as a midterm issue, but far below the economy , according to the Center’s October survey.

Republican voters are much more likely than Democratic voters to see violent crime as a key voting issue this year. Roughly three-quarters of Republican and GOP-leaning registered voters (73%) say violent crime is very important to their vote, compared with around half of Democratic or Democratic-leaning registered voters (49%).

Conservative Republican voters are especially focused on the issue: About eight-in-ten (77%) see violent crime as very important to their vote, compared with 63% of moderate or liberal Republican voters, 65% of moderate or conservative Democratic voters and only about a third of liberal Democratic voters (34%).

Older voters are far more likely than younger ones to see violent crime as a key election issue. Three-quarters of registered voters ages 65 and older say violent crime is a very important voting issue for them this year, compared with fewer than half of voters under 30 (44%).

There are other demographic differences, too. When it comes to education, for example, voters without a college degree are substantially more likely than voters who have graduated from college to say violent crime is very important to their midterm vote.

Black voters are particularly likely to say violent crime is a very important midterm issue. Black Americans have consistently been more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to express concern about violent crime, and that remains the case this year.

Some 81% of Black registered voters say violent crime is very important to their midterm vote, compared with 65% of Hispanic and 56% of White voters. (There were not enough Asian American voters in the Center’s survey to analyze independently.)

Differences by race are especially pronounced among Democratic registered voters. While 82% of Black Democratic voters say violent crime is very important to their vote this year, only a third of White Democratic voters say the same.

Annual government surveys from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show no recent increase in the U.S. violent crime rate. In 2021, the most recent year with available data , there were 16.5 violent crimes for every 1,000 Americans ages 12 and older. That was statistically unchanged from the year before, below pre-pandemic levels and far below the rates recorded in the 1990s, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey .

For each of the four violent crime types tracked in the survey – simple assault, aggravated assault, robbery and rape/sexual assault – there was no statistically significant increase either in 2020 or 2021.

The National Crime Victimization Survey is fielded each year among approximately 240,000 Americans ages 12 and older and asks them to describe any recent experiences they have had with crime. The survey counts threatened, attempted and completed crimes, whether or not they were reported to police. Notably, it does not track the most serious form of violent crime, murder, because it is based on interviews with surviving crime victims.

The FBI also estimates that there was no increase in the violent crime rate in 2021. The other major government study of crime in the U.S., the National Incident-Based Reporting System from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, uses a different methodology from the BJS survey and only tracks crimes that are reported to police.

The most recent version of the FBI study shows no rise in the national violent crime rate between 2020 and 2021. That said, there is considerable uncertainty around the FBI’s figures for 2021 because of a transition to a new data collection system . The FBI reported an increase in the violent crime rate between 2019 and 2020, when the previous data collection system was still in place.

The FBI estimates the violent crime rate by tracking four offenses that only partly overlap with those tracked by the National Crime Victimization Survey: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault and robbery. It relies on data voluntarily submitted by thousands of local police departments, but many law enforcement agencies do not participate.

In the latest FBI study, around four-in-ten police departments – including large ones such as the New York Police Department – did not submit data, so the FBI estimated data for those areas. The high nonparticipation rate is at least partly due to the new reporting system, which asks local police departments to submit far more information about each crime than in the past. The new reporting system also makes it difficult to compare recent data with data from past years.

While the total U.S. violent crime rate does not appear to have increased recently, the most serious form of violent crime – murder – has risen significantly during the pandemic. Both the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a roughly 30% increase in the U.S. murder rate between 2019 and 2020, marking one of the largest year-over-year increases ever recorded. The FBI’s latest data , as well as provisional data from the CDC , suggest that murders continued to rise in 2021.

Despite the increase in the nation’s murder rate in 2020, the rate remained well below past highs, and murder remains the least common type of violent crime overall.

There are many reasons why voters might be concerned about violent crime, even if official statistics do not show an increase in the nation’s total violent crime rate. One important consideration is that official statistics for 2022 are not yet available. Voters might be reacting to an increase in violent crime that has yet to surface in annual government reports. Some estimates from nongovernmental organizations do point to an increase in certain kinds of violent crime in 2022: For example, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, an organization of police executives representing large cities, estimates that robberies and aggravated assaults increased in the first six months of this year compared with the same period the year before.

Voters also might be thinking of specific kinds of violent crime – such as murder, which has risen substantially – rather than the total violent crime rate, which is an aggregate measure that includes several different crime types, such as assault and robbery.

Some voters could be reacting to conditions in their own communities rather than at the national level. Violent crime is a heavily localized phenomenon , and the national violent crime rate may not reflect conditions in Americans’ own neighborhoods.

Media coverage could affect voters’ perceptions about violent crime , too, as could public statements from political candidates and elected officials. Republican candidates, in particular, have emphasized crime on the campaign trail this year.

More broadly, the public often tends to believe that crime is up, even when the data shows it is down. In 22 of 26 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993, at least six-in-ten U.S. adults said there was more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite the general downward trend in the national violent crime rate during most of that period.

• Criminal Justice
• Election 2022

John Gramlich is an associate director at Pew Research Center

What the data says about crime in the U.S.

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Guest Essay

Do Not Make Survival Even More Difficult for People on the Streets

By Laura Riley

Ms. Riley is the director of the clinical program at the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of “Homeless Advocacy.”

In 2013, Grants Pass, Ore., came up with a strategy to deal with a growing homeless population in the city of roughly 40,000, one that might best be described as kicking the can down the road.

Through a series of ordinances, the city essentially made it illegal to sleep outside in public. In particular, anyone sleeping anywhere in public with bedding, a blanket or a sleeping bag would be breaking the law.

“The point,” the City Council president explained at the time, “is to make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move on down the road.”

Unhoused individuals wouldn’t have much choice. There are no homeless shelters in Grants Pass. At least 600 people in the city were unhoused in 2018 and 2019, according to counts by a local nonprofit that serves the unhoused.

Now the United States Supreme Court is being asked whether the enforcement of the city’s camping regulations, which apply to all of the city’s residents but affect them in vastly different ways, violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Oral arguments are scheduled for Monday.

Of course, weighing the legality of camping obscures the real issue, which is how, in a nation with roughly 650,000 unhoused people, the federal, state and local governments can make sure there are enough beds for people to sleep in. Forcing unhoused people to the next town does not create housing that is affordable or available.

The case is an appeal to a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that prohibited Grants Pass from using citations to enforce its public camping ordinance. The Ninth Circuit had earlier prohibited cities from enforcing criminal restrictions on public camping unless there was access to adequate temporary shelter.

In the decision being challenged by Grants Pass, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the city “cannot, consistent with the Eighth Amendment, enforce its anti-camping ordinances against homeless persons for the mere act of sleeping outside with rudimentary protection from the elements, or for sleeping in their car at night, when there is no other place in the city for them to go.”

Which there rarely is, in Grants Pass or elsewhere, and which is why people often have no choice but to sleep outside.

In a friend of the court brief, the National Homelessness Law Center argued that Grants Pass had “rejected” its obligation to care for unhoused residents and that vulnerable groups would continue to be marginalized unless the court decides once and for all that those ordinances are cruel. In its brief to the court, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund noted that the laws disproportionately affect people with disabilities and don’t serve any rehabilitative or deterrent interest.

If nothing else, one thing this case has done is unite many officials on the left and the right of the political spectrum, from San Francisco to Arizona. They have complained in briefs to the court that the Ninth Circuit has hamstrung their communities in dealing with homeless encampments.

But homelessness arises from policy decisions, not from a ruling by an appellate court. The Supreme Court should uphold the Ninth Circuit’s ruling. Otherwise it will open the door for communities to pass local laws that effectively punish unhoused people for existing within their borders, making what is clearly cruel permissible.

It would not be unexpected for the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to give the green light for the kind of camping bans at issue. Unhoused people would be pushed further to the margins, increasingly out of sight and mind. They will still be out there, parked in cars in rural areas or subsisting on urban streets, perhaps after being fined or jailed for the crime of trying to survive without a roof over their heads.

This case shines a light on the abdication of responsibility by governments at all levels to their unhoused residents. Instead of arguing about the legality of bans on sleeping in public, we should be asking: Why move people down the road to another community, one that is likely also short on shelter beds?

There is no doubt that the path to creating permanent housing (and more temporary shelter) is politically challenging and expensive. But there are many solutions along this path that go beyond what lawyers and the courts, even our highest one, can accomplish, and that the public should be demanding.

Governments at all levels should invest in homelessness prevention programs and strategies. Those include providing housing subsidies to people who otherwise could lose their housing and supportive transitional services for those leaving mental health treatment and correctional centers.

People on the brink of homelessness should have a right to counsel in eviction proceedings and should be offered the possibility of mediation in housing courts to give them a chance to remain in their houses or apartments.

Businesses should be increasing employment opportunities by not requiring a permanent address in job applications. Lawmakers should create more pathways for people to clear their criminal records, some that arise from targeted enforcement of low-level, nonviolent offenses, because those records can make it much more difficult to get a job.

For populations with unique needs, such as young people and veterans, social service agencies should pursue particularized interventions that address the underlying reasons that pushed individuals into homelessness.

And, of course, we should be building more housing, plain and simple, and we should be providing affordable housing incentives in areas with grocery stores and medical care nearby.

The Supreme Court should not further criminalize homelessness. But whether it does or not, this case should put governments at all levels on notice that humane policies can help to reduce homelessness. We don’t have to let this crisis continue.

Laura Riley is the director of the clinical program at the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of “Homeless Advocacy.”

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