Bad Economic Conditions In The 1980's Analysis

The positivist theory seeks to find reasons why people commit crimes outside the biological and psychological realm. This leaves society as the cause for crime and positivist theories seek to understand how society influences criminals decisions to offend (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). By looking at what circumstances surrounded the crime, and what social factors influenced the crime, it can be eliminated.

Criminology and the criminal justice system have framed a “taken-for-granted, common-sense” understanding of ‘crime’ and the ‘criminal’ (Tierney, 2010). ‘Crime’ is commonly understood as a violation of the criminal law; originating from religion and the sin of God and then moving towards Classicalism. Classicalism rests on the assumption of free will and recognises rational choice of the individual. It influences much of our system of justice today; especially aspects of due process. It argues that criminality is therefore part of nature; and order is maintained through law and punishments. We can see this through Beccaria’s approach of certainty, celerity and severity (Beccaria, cited in Newburn, 2013, pp116). Positivism, associated with theorists such as Lombroso, offered more of a scientific approach in identifying the causes of crime and could recognise impaired ability such as mental illness. It argues that ‘crime’ is

the importance of that decade. Like the shift away from the government which helped the Reagan era during the 1980’s. Or how diversity and discrimination helped reshape the attitude

President Reagan achieved large part of his goals. Although he had many down falls. One of the goals that he achieved was to cut taxes for Americans. In the reading, "The Economy in the 1980's" it states, "He got 25% tax cut for individuals". Also Reagan wanted to decrease the unemployment rate and give families a higher income. On graph number two, it showed that before Reagan was president the income was rather low. While Reagan's terms went one the income slowly rose. Despite high income shown of graph three the unemployment was considerably high. In the reading, "The Economy in the 1980's" it claims that there was a recession, "The GNP is the total value of goods and services produced by a nation. More people were out of work". Another

America during the 1980’s experienced a time of immense progression and prosperity. The 1980’s saw a boom in economic success because of the newly Reaganomics. MTV and music videos sparked a new wave pop culture for the youth and the many new TV stations opened up a whole new world for all generations. The leadership of the country saw positive steps forward from the past mistrust and failures of the presidents of old and this better leadership carried to country forward through the decade.

There was a great economic decline in the late 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s where there was a decline in trade and industrial activity. The 1980s was not a good time for the United States because the Regan Administration during this period began a 30-year period of financial deregulation. When president Regan was elected into office he promised the Americans that he would bring to an end the supply- sides economics. He argued that economic growth in the United States would be created effectively by lowering barriers for people to supply goods and services, as well as, invest. Therefore, his first move after he entered into office was to deregulate banks and oil. For that reason, there was a sharp expansion in the financial sector because there was also an expansion in the banking industry. There was an increase in the number of investment banks that went public; hence, bringing a very huge sum of the stakeholder capital. This essay aims at looking at what caused factors led to the recession in the 1980s as the period saw many employees being arrested for financial fraud.

The Eighty’s was a time of hippies, punk rock rebels, insane hair styles, sequence, and the world’s all-time favorite game Pac -man was released. Women finally were getting equal pay as men and Ronald Regan was elected President. With all of those incredible things going on it is almost hard to believe that it was also a time of invasions, revolutions, riots, citizens were being taken hostage, and terrorists attacks happened. Lastly, an important eye-opening event that occurred in the Eighty’s was the Iran-Iraq War.

Classicism and Positivism have both positively and negatively impacted on contemporary understandings of criminology and criminal justice practices. Currently, both theories are viewed in combination with each other rather than individually (Fishbein 1990, 27). If considered alone they do not offer a complete assessment of the contributions to criminal behaviour (Fishbein 1990, 27). In the past, biological factors were largely rejected as a result of unscientific findings and the inability to posit rational explanations (Fishbein 1990, 27). The viewpoint by criminologists was either nature (biological) or nurture (sociological, environmental) (Fishbein 1990, 29).

Finally, it rejects focus on criminal law and replaces it with a study of the individual” (Criminal Justice Research, n.d.). Biological theories of wrongdoing make effort to disclose behaviors in opposition to the general public desires by means of examining the characteristics of individuals. These theories are arranged inside a worldview called positivism (determinism), which declares that behaviors, including criminal behaviors, are dictated by factors to a great extent outside individual ability to control. “Early biological theories assumed that structure determines function. In other words, criminals behave differently because structurally they are different” (Bohm & Vogel, 2011, p

The U.S. economy has experienced a healthy development as well as a downturn numerous times in more than 200 years since the founding of the United States. During the 1970’s, the second decline drastically decreased the international competitiveness of U.S. commodities and capital occurred that caused havoc across our nation. In early years the United States dominated many export markets for much of the postwar period, a result of its inherent strengths as a result America advanced technology and manufacturing techniques (Foreign Trade and Global Economic Policies. 2008). By the 1970’s the gap between the United States and other countries was narrowing due to competitiveness and the shock wave that struck from oil prices, a worldwide recession

American is probably the world's biggest consumer, we spends lots and some people end up working two jobs to pay off the borrowed money, or continue to go into debt. “The 1990s was a decade of extremes and contradictions. Americans built bigger and more elaborate homes and drove more expensive automobiles, then worked longer hours to pay for them.”(The 1990s). The rise of housing prices went up so does other products went up too, cause people to work more, by increasing their hours by another hour, and probably work over the weekend. Having no time to have a day off. There were lots of bad coping strategy for lots of workers, to ease the stress from working long hours every week. “The drank more coffee, smoke more cigars, and turned gambling

From the 1970s forward, countries that belonged to the socialist block were in deepening economic difficulties. There was growing conviction among the public that the old political systems could not solve the growing economic problems.

The Classical School of Criminology, established by Cesare Beccaria, promotes the use of reason as the basis of legal authority and is based on the assumption that individuals weigh the consequences of their acts before committing a crime. It was based was based on assumptions that Individuals can “choose legal or illegal means to get what they want, fear of punishment can deter them from committing crime, and society can control behavior by making the pain of punishment greater than the pleasure of the criminal gains” (Adler, Mueller, Laufer, 2013). In other words, crime is caused by the individual exercise of free will.

This theory developed throughout an era of social and political turmoil. As an outcome, positivist theorists were concerned with the sociological, psychological and biological causes of crime. Positivist theorists recognized that offenders expressed abnormal behavior due to their heritable makeup and established a biological difference among noncriminals and criminals. Psychologically in positivism, the theorists believed that the human mind is accountable for people’s movements of crime. Sociologically, in positivism, the theorists believed social and economic influences inspired criminal behavior.

The mid 70’s became the climax in allowance for different family situation. Unlike the 50’s and 60’s where women played minor roles as housewives, the 70’s presented a new kind of role for females: single moms. Sitcoms such as The Partridge Family, focused on the mother figure and displayed the roles she undertook as both a mother and a father. Comparing The Partridge Family to a modern sitcoms such as Ben & Kate, these shows share a male characters that “fills in” the father figure gap and the struggle both mothers face as single parents. On the other hand, they differ in the child’s rebellion due to their void in a paternal figure.