Crime And Its Effects On Society

Assignment 2: Effects of crime and how the public services support victims and witnesses of crime

This is the act that the British parliament passed on the 2nd of December 1997 and in July 1998 it received royal assent.

This is the act that the British parliament passed on the 2nd of December 1997 and in July 1998 it received royal assent.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, directed by Gore Verbinski, is one of the most influential pieces of cinema in the disney movie franchise. The movie was well received by the majority of people that viewed it. However, not everyone was as impressed with the movie, like film critic Roger Ebert for example. While Ebert, at the time working as a film critic for Chicago Sun-Times, gave the movie three stars, there are some critiques that are incredibly incorrect. The article focuses a lot on the stellar performances of Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush, Jack Sparrow and Barbossa respectively, while making light of the respectable performance of Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann. He also spends a good segment of his review bashing the action scenes and deeming them pointless based on the plot of the movie. Overall, Roger Ebert believes the movie was decent, but went on for far too long, calling it, “a nice little 90-minute B movie trapped inside the 143 minutes of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (rogerebert.com). There is an argument to be made about Roger Ebert’s rollercoaster ride of a review on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, especially concerning his opinions on the performances of some of the actors and the fighting.

Crime is often described as socially constructed, which influences our understanding of who commits a crime. Firstly, labelling theorists argue that crime is a social construction based on the powerful’s reaction to certain behaviour, those who are deviant are people that have been labelled as such. Marxists claim the bourgeoise construct crime in order to criminalise the proletariat, get away with their own deviance and maintain their own dominance. Neo-marxists look at how moral panics create a social construction of crime and can criminalise certain groups. Finally, feminists, argue crime is constructed in a patriarchal way and that the criminal justice system is harsher to female offenders. Whereas others criticise these theories for

Recent surveys have indicated that crime rate in the United States is on the rise. Crime in the U.S. is classified into property crime and violent crime. These criminal activities have a considerable impact on a state’s social and economic growth and development. Different states in the U.S. have developed different strategies to combat crime, which continues to transform in form and frequency. A number of policies, options, and approaches to crime control exist. This report explores some of the policies, options, and approaches that could be used by Florida to enhance crime control.

Crime is a social construction, and behaviour defined as criminal varies across time and place. Crime is an act that violate moral behaviour, but why is that not all behaviours that violate moral behaviour are labelled as crime? This is because crime is defined differently across different societies and different times. Neutralisation and drift theory helps us to explain why people abuse children by showing us how perpetrators rationalise their guilt for these actions before they physically, sexually, emotionally abuse or neglect children. They do this by blaming their actions on other people, higher forces or believing their acts are harmless. In this essay I will begin by talking about crime as a social construction then touch on child abuse in New Zealand followed by a discussion of how my social contract theory helps us to explain this crime.

As the nineties began, the general theory of crime became the most prominent criminological theory ever proposed; furthermore, it is empirically recognized as the primary determinant in deviant and criminal behaviors. Known also as the self-control theory, the general theory of crime can most simply be defined as the absence or lack of self-control that an individual possesses, which in turn may lead them to commit unusual and or unlawful deeds. Authored by educator Michael R. Gottfredson and sociologist Travis Hirschi, A General Theory of Crime (1990) essentially “dumbed down” every theory of crime into two words, self-control. The widely accepted book holds that low self-control is the main reason that a person initiates all crimes, ranging from murder and rape to burglary and embezzlement. Gottfredson and Hirschi also highlighted, in A General Theory of Crime (1990), that low self-control correlates with personal impulsivity. This impulsive attitude leads individuals to become insensitive to deviant behaviors such as smoking, drinking, illicit sex, and gambling (p. 90). The extreme simplicity, yet accuracy, of Gottfredson’s and Hirschi’s general theory of crime (self-control theory), make it the most empirically supported theory of criminal conduct, as well as deviant acts.

For decades, studies have been done using various empirical techniques employing different disciplinary approaches in an effort to estimate, as accurately as possible, the cost of crime to society. However, with challenges like unreported crimes, inflations and monetary conversion to quantify intangible costs, there are variations between estimates from the different techniques and drawbacks to implementing each of them.[1] Knowing the impact of crime to society is important in order to reaffirm that criminal justice interventions and policies made to mitigate, prevent and reduce crime are really effective. One way to do so is to look at the reduction in the number of attempted as well as committed crimes. However, the number of crimes does not portray the severity of each crime; a murder would be on the same level as theft.[2] Hence, researchers came up with a common metric as an alternative to judge the severity of crime, that is, the monetary costs of crime.[3] In policy-making, comparing the monetary costs of crime before and after a policy is implemented would judge how effective the policy is.

Criminal law is an immense part in society, including the following functions: to deter a person from acts that harms them or society. Additionally, people who do not follow the rules that are being set by the authority, they will be punished. The criminal law is formed to guide the general public behaviour, which are seen acceptable by society. (Jonathan Herring criminal law eighth edition)

Crime has diverse effects on society in various ways, shapes or form. These criminal effects are impacted either on an individual basis or a continual basis in our everyday lives. These effects or outcomes, if you will, are prevalent on our streets we live on, the neighborhoods we are in, and even the states that we live in. The end result of crimes in our society has many different physical, financial, and emotional impacts. Among those influenced are the public, the victim, and the Police/Law Enforcement.

There are many perceptions of what defines crime. The definitions appear to change throughout history and are still changing today (Henry, S. and Lanier, M. M., 2001 ,p.139). For example, in the past marital rape was not considered a crime as it was thought that women were believed to be “sexual property” of the male and, therefore it couldn’t be classed as rape (Brownmiller, 1975, cited by Bergen, R.K., 1996, p.3). However, in the United States in 1978 a man was convicted of rape on his wife (Russell, 1990, cited by Bergen, R.K., 1996, p.4). This shows how it is hard to define crime due to the changes in views over time. Different cultures also have different perceptions of what is, or is not considered to be a crime. For example,

Many people have different theories as to why crime exists. Some believe crime happens because of the individual’s culture, education (or lack there of), or even their race. Others believe crime is associated with whom we surround ourselves with. There are three sociological theories that suggest why crime happens in society; they are social learning theory, social control theory, and social reaction (labeling) theory. These theories suggest it is our relationships and social interactions that influence our behavior.

Fear of crime is a major issue within our society with Farrell et al stating that ‘it is commonplace to assert that fear of crime has become a major social and political problem, perhaps bigger than crime itself’. With Leeds being known as a high risk area for crime in the UK with Leeds University and Leeds Beckett coming 6th and 7th respectively for the highest crime rate on The Complete University Guide students here are likely to have a strong fear towards becoming a victim of crime. Previous research has shown there are differences in the type of crimes that the different genders fear becoming victims of. (Rountree 1998) This research aims to investigate those differences and find out if they affect the lives of students in Leeds. The main aims are as follows:

If you were told by three witches that you were to become the next ruler of an entire country, what would you do to ensure that it happens? In the novel Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, a story told about Scotland and its nobles against Macbeth and his horrid ways. What Macbeth did was drastic and evil compared to what a normal person would do. The wife of Macbeth played a few large parts in Macbeth’s downfall. While Lady Macbeth helped him gain power, Macduff was working on taking it away. Without thinking, the sons of King Duncan fled Scotland leaving all the power to Macbeth. The desire for power is the fuel that drives Macbeth; it drives him to destroy his relationships and turn everyone he loves against him. Macbeth had taken the throne ruthlessly, but when all of Scotland and England turned against him that power was no use.