It is apparent that some social groups are in situations more conducive to crime, because of the environment they live in. Boys and men dominate in crime. Arrest, self report and victimization data all reflects that boys and men perpetrate more conventional and serious crimes than girls and women. It appears that boys and men no longer are “normal subjects” of violence and that as equal rights and feminist groups become stronger and more profound so to do women in crime. In terms of race, “The countries where frequent mixture of people takes place; those in which industry and trade collect many persons and things together, and possess the greatest activity; finally, those where the inequality of fortune is most felt, all things being equal, are those which give rise to the greatest number of crimes.” 15 The question of economics as a cause of crime finds that people are not forced into crime because they are poor, but because they are not capable of getting the luxuries that they have deemed necessities. They have gone from being in a comfortable, employed state to an unemployed and very difficult state and no longer can live beyond their means. In addition, education also has an effect on crime. “Of the 25,000 inmates on whom data about the extent of schooling were available, 36% had a Grade 9 education or less. In comparison, the 1996 Census showed that 19% of adults aged 18 and over in Canada had a Grade 9 education or less.16 In addition, 78.7% of the offenders in Canada have not yet gained their high school diploma. 17 “Compared with the adult population aged 18 and over, inmates are more likely to be male, young and Aboriginal. Inmates also have fewer years of schooling, are more likely to be unemployed at the time of admission, and are less likely to be married, according to a census of correctional facilities conducted on October 5, 1996.” 18
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Notes