I'll just say that there ARE some societal issues that foster criminal behavior. Lack of mental health care, poor education and family dysfunction are a big ones. I could be wrong but I believe family dysfunction is number one. So what can society do to relieve this?
Better education by school and teacher accountability, school choice, parental control.
Strong families by heterosexual marriage, parental authority and moral values that discourage premarital sex and abortion.
Moral values encouraged by religious freedom.
Lack of self-esteem is indeed a bogus term. Hopelessness is a better descriptive of the sociopathic behavior of selfish immature people resulting from the lack responsibility and discipline brought on by the breakdown of the family.
In other words, most of the solutions for the so-called root causes of crime are traditionally conservative "values".
You can try to blame lack of mental health care but when you really look at the evidence, health care is available to almost everyone in this country. The problem is people don't use it.
I don't buy the education argument. The assumption is that because the students perform poorly, the schools are bad. This isn't necessarily so. There are children who thrive alongside poorly performing students. Many criminals have dropped out of school. Is that poor education (society's fault) or their own lack of motivation?
Of course, most criminals can point to some kind of family dysfunction. So can most non-criminals.
I think key factors in criminal behavior are lack of a conscience, lack of empathy, and the inability to appreciate the consequences of one's actions.