Hence, when we study crime, it is vital to keep in mind that there are differing viewpoints within the field of criminology as to the fundamental nature of the subject matter itself. 2. How can theories help us to understand criminal behavior or to design strategies intended to control such behavior? Theory helps us to understand the world because it provides us with a fundamental pattern, which explains a variety of
Many people ask, why does crime occur, who commits the crimes and why. We also ask the question of whether or not economic class, race, ect, has anything to do with why crime occurs. Theories have been conjured upon these acts to try to give meaning on why, what happens takes place. In this essay I would like to take the time to explain these theories to help others understand and maybe change their own viewpoints. Crime can affect the way individuals perceive others generally creating bias and prejudice within a person’s frame of thought; hopefully we can make someone think a little differently.
Edwards and Shillingford (2008) state that “the central premise of choice theory is that people are motivated by five basic needs; survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. A criminal is able to consider both personal and situational factors, situational factors being efficiency of police force or the level of security; this is the rational choice theory McCormick & Siegel, 2006). Social processes and social structures can all be big factors in this rational choice that criminals make before committing a crime. Crime trends seem to be determined by the presence of targets, motivated criminals, and absence of guardians. All these determinates are examples of how social and economic factors influence the general crime rates.
Victimology plays a very important role in criminology and is used to determine what the victim’s behavior has to do with their risk of being victimized. “Victimology is the study of harm dome from illegal activity. This particular area of sociology is inter-related with criminology” (Selwyn, L. 2010). Victimology will study issues dealing with the victim. For instance, who is the most likely victim.
Compare and contrast two approaches to defining and measuring crime and deviance. There are a number of sociological theories that explore the concepts of crime and deviance within society. Although these theories are diverse and offer differing perspectives and explanations of crime and deviance, they all agree that a social approach is required (Taylor et al. 2008). This assignment will explore the social constructivist approach to defining and measuring of crime and deviance from a functionalist and interactionist perspective with a brief overview of the Marxist perception.
Secondly it will go onto explaining different approaches to interviews which have specific strengths and limitations. Next, it will explain some advantages and disadvantages of using interviews as a research method with consideration to different types of interviews. This will be done by explaining ways in which the researcher may find interviewing useful and showing barriers which can prevent this method from being useful to researchers. The final aspects of this essay will sum up the pros and cons of using interviews as a research method. Gillham 2000 said that interview is a conversation which aims to find answers to particular questions.
Because of the fact that this study covers many aspects of life, it can be used in various settings. Bourgois takes the individual struggles out of its context and connects it to structural social issues as inequality, poverty, marginalization and educational problems. He stresses on the history and how the colonialism played a role in the oppression of the Puerto Rican population of East Harlem. (Bourgois, World101x: Full interview with Philippe Bourgois 2014) Due to the holistic approach, this study can also be valuable in other departments of social science as criminology, sociology, psychology and within political science. Each approach has its own strength.
Which empirical and speculative theories are most applicable to this perspective as it applies to organized crime and overall criminal behavior? Properly cite your references or resources according to APA guidelines. Discussion Questions What is social disorganization? How does social disorganization contribute to organized crime? What is an example of social disorganization that created opportunistic atmospheres for organized crime?
The book, which I choose to analyze for my paper was Dealing Crack: The social world of streetcorner selling by Bruce A Jacobs . The book goes into detail on the lives of crack dealers and tries to attempt reasoning as to why they do it. What their life styles are like and how lawmakers and the police react to what they do. In this paper I am going to analyze the rational theory to the differential association theory in attempt to see which one is more effective in proving how crime is committed and what policies work the best for the public based on the styles of these theories. One of the major theories portrayed in the book was rational choice.
Different sociological theories can have various explanations for the same phenomenon In this paper I will explain how different sociological theories can have various explanations for the same phenomenon. For example, we will explore crime rates in the US and I will show how three sociological theories—symbolic interactionism, functionalist theory and conflict theory—would explain the kind, distribution, or changing crime rates in the US. By the definition symbolic interactionism analyzes society by addressing the subjective meanings that people impose on objects, events, and behaviors. Subjective meanings are given primacy because it is believe that people behave based on what they believe and not just on what is objectively true. Thus, society is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation.