Criminal Behavior And Its Effects On The Crime

1872 Words8 Pages
Criminals convicted of sexual offences such as rape and molestation often receive sentences that are not severe enough to account for their crime. These lax sentences are due to the fact that rape has had ambiguous definitions in the past portions of the blame are shifted onto the victim or considered out of the offender’s control and the offender’s behaviour outside of the crime tend to impact the severity of their punishment. A contemporary example of this is Brock Turner, convicted sexual offender of Stanford University. Turner digitally penetrated an intoxicated, unconscious woman behind a dumpster and served three months in prison. Differential Association states that criminal behaviour is learned from intimate associates, like Turner’s swim-team friends. Neutralisation is the process of learning to rationalise crime by shifting blame and trivialising the crime. Brock Turner’s case is wrought with neutralisation. Turner’s feeble sentence isn’t an exception to otherwise proportionate punishments of rapists; it’s the rule. His statement, the victim’s statement, media coverage and the public perspective can all be analysed using Neutralisation Theory and Differential Association to get a better understanding of why rapists are not sufficiently punished.

Neutralisation Theory and Differential Association both stem from the Positivist School of Criminology meaning that both surmise that punishment should fit the criminal not the crime. This simply isn’t applicable to
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