This then lead for official statistics and the law enforcement to show a bias towards working class boys. This research shows how deviance only exists because people have decided to attach a label, thus the labelling theory is useful in explain how a deviant and criminal behaviour is classed as this. However, it fails to explain why some people certain crime and deviance in the first place before they are labelled. Also, as said in Item a ‘’deviant individuals are labelled when their actions are discovered and provoke reactions from society. However, this reaction will take differing forms, depending on how the nature of the action is perceived.’’ But as well as this, labelling theorists look at the effects and reaction it causes the individual to take.
Explian why young offenders are treated differently in teh criminal justice system: less maturity - less ability to see the difference between right and wrong - more easily influenced by other people - chance to change how a youth views these bad things, while its too late for adults - gives a chance to preserve the inoccence in that child and gives them anoter chance to become a good person - the circumstances in their lives may have a LARGE affect on the bad choices they have made. What does this mean for
Choice theory is where offenders are rational decision makers who choose to engage in anti-social activity because they believe their actions will be beneficial. Some adolescents choose to sell drugs because they think that it will help to improve their living conditions. Some choose to participate in gang activity because being in a gang makes them feel like they belong to something significant. Some may get a natural high off of committing crime. There could be a million reasons as to why a person commits a crime.
Being a criminal or deviant could be seen to be a social construct and therefore this may mean that you could question what criminal activity is and whether this social construct is even right since it has been constructed by members of the society. The laws of the society have also constructed the norms and values of society and therefore if someone were to go against that they would be seen to be criminal however, this may differ in other parts of the world because what may be criminal and deviant in our society may be seen to be the norm in another. The labelling theory helps us to understand why people commit crimes and why people end up being deviant within the community. One reason may be that this stereotypical view or pre-judgement enables people to self-fulfil their prophecy and therefore creates criminal for example. Someone who comes from poor background and where’s hoodies does not automatically mean that they could be deviant.
Findings from these analyses lend support to the enhancement model. In the structural equation model, prior delinquency led to association with delinquent peers as well as to gang membership, suggesting a social selection model. However, association with delinquent peers and gang membership led to later delinquency, suggesting a facilitation model. Neither the social selection nor the facilitation model fully accounted for these results, suggesting that the enhancement model may be operating. However, additional research is needed concerning the levels of delinquency before, during, and after gang membership in order to assess the adequacy of the enhancement model as suggested by our findings.
The fact that some crimes are committed by individuals who are not yet mature enough to vote, drive, or even drink should not be ignored. Punishment for an adult can be unfair when applied to a child in some cases, especially when they don’t understand the consequences of their actions. When it comes to judgment of these crimes it should vary on a case to case basis. It should be taken into account whether the defendant’s crime was malicious, accidental or they could not understand the magnitude of their actions. Juvenile offenders should be tried and punished as adults do to the nature of the crime.
• It creates two new schemes for dealing with youth crime: child safety orders, which apply to children under the age of 10, and parenting orders, which are made against the parents of a child who has been given an anti-social behaviour order. • Creates sex offender orders, which bar offenders from activities and areas frequented by children. • Abolishes the death penalty for treason or piracy. • Introduces separate offences for crimes that were aggravated by the victim's race or presumed race. • Obliges local authorities, the police and other local bodies to draw up a crime and disorder strategy covering their area.
Crime provides jobs, acts as a deterrent for conforming citizens and puts behavior into perspective. He believes that without crime somewhat trivial offense could be blown out of proportion. Durkheim also states that too much or too little crime is dysfunctional for society. Too much and society breaks down into a state of anomie, whereby society is in a state of normlessness and an absence of norms and values occurs; too little crime and society stagnates and cannot evolve. Functionalists also believes that crime can create unity for those within society, a crime is committed and people unite and feel protected because they share the same view on it's awfulness; however one could criticsise this and say although it may create 'unity' the
Crime as defined by Winterdyk, “is a socially constructed concept used to categorize certain behaviours as requiring formal control and warranting some form of social intervention” (Winterdyk, 2006, p. 491). Individuals that commit these criminal acts are believed to have made a specific choice in the matter. The benefits and consequences have been weighed therefore the criminal has made the choice, but what other circumstances can have a role in this decision? It is understood that social structures, social processes and human biology can all have an affect on the outcome of our individual acts. However the biological flaws of persons are not as significant as one may think.
‘Outline and explain ways in which data about crime is collected’ Crime can be defined as deviant activities that break the law in any particular society. Finding out how much crime takes place isn’t easy, and attempts to measure crime can prove misleading. This doesn’t mean that crime statistics aren’t affective, but it does mean that no single measure can be fully relied upon. Many sociologists see crime statistics as a social construction, as collecting crime data is a result of the cultural expectations of society, and by understanding who commits crime and what sorts of crimes are committed, we can get a clearer picture of why people commit crime in the first place. Different sociologists have presented different theories and concepts to explain what drives a person to commit a crime, and research and statistics give us an idea of the type of crimes committed and the places that they’re most likely to occur.