It is easier to predict that in societies, which still have a communitarian ethos and strong pressures for conformity, communities can be prevented from breaking down. The trends in youth culture are universally toward a global culture, and that trend undermines respect for community, elders, and traditional values. Communal values, informal controls, and traditions often deemphasize equality over conformity, but equality is on the rise. In short, to say communal and informal control can be crime control may be true, but it is control at the expense of other values, many of which are supported and accepted by large groups who will be quite reluctant to continue to accept a second-rate status in their communities. The trend toward equal treatment of individuals is strong and exists in law, politics, economics, and cultural norms.
Egalitarianism is linked to liberties, the right and power of people to make individual decisions.
One of those decisions is crime. In the long and even short run, individualism is on the rise for technology is on its side. The argument here is not that individualism by itself leads to crime, but that individualism requires more formal control, and formal controls are, probably inevitably and inherently, weak. B. Economic Trends in economic crimes are easier to predict. Much economic crime is produced by greed, and much by need.