ABSTRACT
Jealousy of what other people have, lust for personal possessions, and competitive striving for material goods derive from cultural emphases. These conditions give rise to the crime of theft-the illegal taking of another’s possessions by stealth or force. Americans typically say that what they want for themselves and for their children is “happiness.” Happiness can be had in many forms, like watching a lovely sunset, enjoying the company of friends and fellow students, or reading a good book. But very often the pursuit of what we regard as happiness becomes related to money-how much we have and how much we’d like to have. This acquisitive pattern emerged
in the United States in the beginning of the nineteenth century with the decline of a subsistence economy in which most Americans lived on what they produced. The shift was toward a market economy in which goods were produced and sold outside the home (Reynolds, 2008:12). The transition was fueled by the Industrial Revolution, about which an English writer aptly observed after poring over records of the development: “They left me with an acute awareness of how the delights of discovery and achievement led to tragic consequences as they became more oriented toward profi t-how idealism capsized into greed and squalor” (Athill, 2008:137). When we place a heavy stress on material wealth, but limit legitimate opportunities for its acquisition, theft is a particularly likely outcome. Robert K. Merton (1964) maintains that the United States does just this: we encourage, almost demand, that people be fi nancially successful if they are to be well regarded. As discussed in Chapter 7 of this text, Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld (2007) argue that the high levels of property crime in the United States are tied directly to the “ American Dream ” —the relentless push toward material acquisitions.
