The Importance of Indeterminate and Unknown Factors in Nourishing Crime: A Case Study of South Africa Using Neutrosophy

Abstract

There is no doubt regarding the notion that crime is deteriorating the socio-economic
structure of society. Crime poses a serious threat to human values and existence. Therefore this
menace should be stopped as early as possible otherwise it would lead to unavoidable
circumstances. Whenever policies are formed there are some certain factors that are always taken
into consideration to stop the crime. These measures were effective but with the passage of time
there seems to be a constant situation and crime seems to be at its peak. This situation has forced us
to think that there may be other factors that are leading to criminal behaviour in humans. These
factors may be uncertain, unknown or indeterminate. Though previous researches in this regard
have taken into consideration all the known factors, the present work takes into account both known
and unknown factors together with the relationship among them. Taking into account all the factors
which nourish crime either directly or indirectly, here we try to model the situation mathematically
using Neutrosophic Cognitive Map since it provides us with a methodology of representing known
and unknown factors together. The work is carried out using graphical methods and concepts
together with linear algebra. The present work takes into account the crimes which are occurring in
South Africa and models this situation taking into considerations all the certain and uncertain
factors. The study reveals that relative poverty & inadequate housing, limited social and cognitive
abilities, exclusion from school, family violence, culture conflict, colonialism, unemployment,
income inequality, violent expressions of masculinity and use of violence to ‘resolve’ are directly
related to crime in the country. The other factors such as Adherence to social norms, the multi-racial
character of the society, Racial discrimination, apartheid policy, political transition, restructuring of
the criminal justice system, gathering of people, intimate partner violence & femicide and use of
‘tik’ (crystal meth/ methamphetamine) which were not supposed to have a direct influence on crime
in the country by previous researches are also having a significant effect on crime. The present work
contributes effectively in identifying the factors leading to criminal behaviour among people. This
would in turn help policymakers to take necessary steps at ground level to curb the crime in the
country. The work also shows the modelling of the situation using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps just to
represent the effectiveness of Neutrosophic Cognitive Maps over them.