Such an approach in this case would seek to understand the attitudes of ethnic minorities towards the police through methods such as semi-structured or unstructured interviews. Unstructured interviews are informal sessions with the interviewer asking open ended questions, in this case about attitudes to the police. The idea is that respondents are free to answer in depth. However a potential problem here is that researchers could ask leading questions or put across an anti police bias, which might encourage the respondents to exaggerate their experiences. A qualitative approach ought to collect data that are high in validity.
Even though all of these strains have an influence on the racial differences in crime, I believe that the community contributes a lot to these differences. By observing at a community, one can derive that a community branches out to numerous types of strain. According to the text, African Americans show a disproportionate number of residents who occupy areas where there are higher rates of violence and economical disadvantages. These disadvantaged neighborhoods usually lack good public schools, job opportunities, and more often promote criminal behavior. With the lack of job opportunities in a poverty infused area, one might succumb to criminal
Two Models/Criminal Process Ashley Lawrence CJA/364 June 8,2013 Mathew Taylor Two Models/Criminal Process Two models within the criminal justice system play very important roles. One may say that within the political world the two models may even conflict with each other. Crime control model may be more liberal focusing on society and crime, which as for due process is to focus more on a fair opportunity for the one that is accused and many see it as conservative. The 4th, 5th, 6th, and fourteenth amendment all play important roles within the due process model, and the criminal justice system, to make sure everyone is given a fare trial. Due process occurs when fare treatment is given throughout the judicial system.
To what extent is it true to say that high levels of criminality amongst ethnic minorities are a real visible phenomenon? Official statistics on the criminal justice process show some striking differences between ethnic groups. For example, black people are more likely to be imprisoned than other groups. Is this because some ethnic groups are more likely to offend in the first place, or is it because the criminal justice system is racist and discriminates against ethnic minorities. According to official statistics, there are some significant ethnic differences in the likelihood of being involved in the criminal justice system.
Do you prosecute that as a hate-crime, just because it might be? One group of people is now getting special treatment under the law. That sounds lot like discrimination to me, which isn't how this country is supposed to work. Whatever happened to equal protection under the law? Further, because most hate-crime legislation puts added effort into prosecuting crimes against certain individuals or groups, what about the same crimes committed against someone who doesn't fit into one of those groups?
In this essay we will assess the usefulness of these functionalist theories, and look at how it helps us explain crime. One functionalist who tried to explain crime is Merton and his strain theory, the strain theory argues that people engage in the deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. Merton explanation combines 2 elements; structural factors- society’s unequal opportunity structure, cultural factors- strong emphasis to achieve goals and weak emphasis on using legit means. Merton uses the strain theory to explain some patterns of crime in society, he argues a person’s positioning in society affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain to anomie. Merton gives 5 different types of adaption; Conformity- the individual accepts socially acceptable goal and achieves it through legitimate means, Innovation- Individual accepts the role of success and wealth but uses illegitimate means to achieve them, Ritualism- Individual give up on legitimate goals but still follow strictly to the rules, Retreatism- Individuals reject legitimate goals and means of achieving them e.g drug addicts, the final type is Rebellion- Individuals reject existing goals and means but replace them with new one in desire to bring about revolutionary change.
Why are the rates disproportionate? We can look at a few sociological theories for possible answers to this question. Disproportionate Offending and African-Americans There are two theories that may offer some sort of explanation of these types of problems within our criminal justice system in regards to minorities like African-Americans. Those two theories are Critical Criminological Theory (Quinney year) and Class Conflict Theory (Bonger year). It is possible to link these two theories to these problems and they may help direct us to possible
Since OCS relies largely on criminal law while criminal law is socially constructed by social norms from different actors, OCS is regarded as social construct. Actors involved As mentioned before, OCS is considered as “social construct” and we are going to examine what actors involved in the procedure of OCS and how they make influences. Media Media is an influential social organization and is interdependent with other institutions including pressure groups, political parties, police…etc. Moreover, media tends to report some high profile cases. An incident reported by media must have a certain degree of enlargement and exaggeration.
“It is a person’s environment that leads them into criminal and deviant behaviour.” This essay will firstly define deviance and crime in sociological terms. It will explore how deviance and crime are defined and who defines them as such. Considering the moral and legal aspects of deviance and crime. Secondly this essay will consider some of the many ideas and perspectives around the reason for and the continuation of crime and deviance in society. As a conclusion this essay will take into consideration whether the perspectives outlined are external or internal in their description of reasons for crime and deviance and try and determine the relevance of the arguments.
Typology for crime uses defined characteristics, such as motivation, situation, behavior-both victim and offender-, and aspects unique to the offense. 2. What are the key issues to be considered in explaining patterns of homicide? * When trying to explain homicide, socio-demographics need to be examined. Using cultural norms, weapons availability, gang activity, geographic region, victim-offender relationship, as well as individual characteristics as considerations can give a much greater idea of statistics and causes.