Crime And Its Effects On Society

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

Describing and Evaluating the Major Theories of Cause of Criminal Behaviour and the Impact of Crime on Victims and Society

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

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

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.

Firstly, the Republican Party proposes that to lower crime, the current laws must be enforced and some require harsher penalties to discourage potential felons. “The next president must restore the public’s trust in law enforcement and civil order by first adhering to the rule of law himself” (GOP). In other words, the states should strictly follow the legislation to help deter crime. The Republican Party has a strong stance for support of the death penalty for the more destructive crimes.

a. Imagine asking 100 strangers to describe a criminal. Predict whether those descriptions would be likely to focus on street criminals, or the variety of topics covered in this video.

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.

The effects of crime on victim can have a mixed feeling about making a victim impact statement. They may want to tell the judge or parole hearing officer how the crime affected their life and yet they may be anxious because you don't know how to prepare an impact statement or you don't want to bring back bad memories by describing how the crime has hurt you. The victim impact statements may include descriptions of:

Crime is a social construct because it is an idea that is established by a society to control the behaviors of the people within the society (“Radical Concept of Crime”). What is considered to be criminal varies within different area and cultures and even time. Things that were legal two hundred years ago are illegal now. For example, in the 18th and 19th century when slavery was allowed in America, there were a lot of people who saw nothing wrong with it because they had been socialized to accept and justify it. If you ask most Americans now about slavery, they would say that it was a tragedy or that they just cannot understand how it happened. This is because we are now being socialized to think of slavery as wrong. Even though many citizens

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)

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.

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: