Social Effects Of Social Class On Criminal Victimization

Assess the usefulness of Marxist theories of stratification in understanding social class in society today.

Three models portraying our criminal justice system are the Wedding Cake Model, Criminalization Model, and the President’s Commission Model. The Wedding Cake Model “emphasizes that the system handles different kinds of cases differently; it depicts four layers or tiers of cases”. While the Wedding Model offers an accurate typology of cases processed through the system, its primary focus is on the decisions of prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges. There is a glimpse the role of power and status in such decisions, but the factors of race, class, and gender are not explicit. But, this model does not address the lawmaking process and the social inequalities in the economic and political systems in which laws are forged. Now the second model, the Criminalization model explores the role of social class in the criminal justice system. It shows that the system is used to control certain groups of people by criminalizing their behaviors and targeting them for arrest and incarceration. The third model, the President’s Commission Model provides the most famous portrayal of the criminal justice system by summarizing the stages of the system. In comparison, the Wedding Cake Model and the Criminalization Model are similar because they both show the recognition of power and status in the criminal justice system. These two models are the opposite of the President’s Commission Model due to the fact that this model does not show the roles played by race, gender, and social class at the

(Campbell, 2016). Two giants in childhood lead poisoning research and advocacy, Dr. Philip Landrigan and Dr. David Bellinger, summarize the adverse effects of lead very completely, yet succinctly: “Lead is a devastating poison. It damages children’s brains, erodes intelligence, diminishes creativity and the ability to weigh consequences and make good decisions, impairs language skills, shortens attention span, and predisposes to hyperactive and aggressive behavior. Lead exposure in early childhood is linked to later increased risk for dyslexia and school failure.”(p. 3).

Economic status is a relevant aspect in the experience of punishment. To an individual who sternly believes that the American justice system entitles every person to the same standard of due process, the previously mentioned idea is blasphemous. Unfortunately, the concept is false. The American justice system does not equally accommodate the needs of criminals placed on trial. Class is relevant in the experience of punishment only because economic inequality is barely recognized in the formulation and carrying out of prison sentences. The foundation of this unjust punishment is laid down at the trial, where disadvantaged individuals find themselves the victims of stereotypes, poor legal representation and haphazard verdicts. Once imprisoned, lower class criminals become immersed in an environment which mimics the troubled circumstances that originally led them to commit crime. Having received an ineffective sentence, convicts return to their poor communities and are expected to reintegrate into society without proper treatment.

7) In criminological theories, we saw how police activity is largely geared towards minor visible crimes committed by individuals from the lower stratums of society as oppose to “white collar crimes” committed by those of higher stratums (Dubé, CRM 3701, 2011). Abolitionists argue that by severely punishing some of the poor in order to deter society from committing crimes; we are only further contributing to the inequalities in today’s society.

Robert D. Crutchfield when speaking of the social class differences to explain criminal involvement in the United States in his published work “From Slavery to Social Class to Disadvantage: An Intellectual History of the Use of Class to Explain Racial Differences in Criminal Involvement” asks an important question, why do we always connect crimes with race? Crutchfield states “When race is not the focus, differences in ethnicity, religion, immigration status, or some other marker of being “the other” are part of how we think about and talk about crime” (2). Crutchfield proposes that we continually seek “out” groups to ostracize and blame crime on. Out groups when blamed for crime, it is attributed to interiority or social class. We often attribute crimes (those of property and violence) to those of different races. But if the question was reworded and was understood to include collar crimes, white people would have a huge crime rate. Crutchfield stumbles on several correlations while in this inquiry: that African Americans are more involved in kinds of crime that lead to prison sentences (compared to whites), and that people in lower social classes serve time for these offenses. As African Americans, are very abundant and overrepresented in the areas of low socioeconomic class, the fallacy usually arises that the correlation between the poor African Americans and crime is prevalent. These two sets of data however, do not create a connection. Crutchfield analyzes the effects

Social Class is a division of a society based on social and economic status. In today’s society there are three main social groups in America: upper, middle, and lower class; these rankings are contributed by mass amounts of factors, but one of the main factors that people cannot control is their race and ethnicity. Race and ethnicity, likewise as gender, can also play a part in a variety of other concerns such as, education level, income, and where you reside.

The purpose of this paper is to first define intersectionality and how it is linked to issues such as class, race, gender and crime. Secondly, it will discuss why intersectionality is important to understand crime and justice. In order to understand the relationship between intersectionality and crime, a particular issue will be reviewed from the crime and delinquency issues of 2014. Out of the 52 articles, this paper will first look at the number of titles and abstracts that discuses race, class, gender or other social inequalities. Lastly, out of the 52 articles reviewed, five will be thoroughly examined and discussed that best address intersectionality and how these issues are link together.

In the late 1970s in the United States, lead was removed from gasoline under the Clean Air Act. Numerous studies look at historical data concerning the reduction in childhood lead exposure in the late 1970s and early 1980s to examine significant declines in violent crime in the 1990s.

How could one possibly believe that the correlation between the percentage of lead exposure in a person correlates with the amount of crime in the United States? The lead-crime hypothesis is a hypothesis proposed by the economist, Steven D. Levit that claims that increase blood lead levels in children had an affect on the amount of crime happening in the United States. As know by much of society and almost all scientist increase blood-lead levels can lead to multiple disabilities in children which includes but is not limited to learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and impulse control problems. As suggested by the hypothesis, these disabilities lead to more violent crimes as the children grow older. I believe

Crime and criminalization are dependent on social inequality Social inequality there are four major forms of inequality, class gender race and age, all of which influence crime. In looking at social classes and relationship to crime, studies have shown that citizens of the lower class are more likely to commit crimes of property and violence than upper-class citizens: who generally commit political and economic crimes. In 2007 the National Crime Victimization Survey showed that families with an income of $15000 or less had a greater chance of being victimized; recalling that lower classes commit a majority of those crimes. We can conclude that crime generally happens within classes.

The purpose of this essay is to provide an explanation on why sociologists are interested in class. This assignment will define what class is and to what extent class matters. Other social divisions will be explored in this assignment to show how they intersect with class. The social divisions which intersect with class which will be discussed include economic and social inequalities, social mobility and identity. The beliefs from well-known theorists, Karl Marx and Max Weber who disagreed on the nature of class, will also be included to support the main points which are

Almost half of the 83,000 people in prison ran away from home as a child and cannot read as well as an 11 year old. Almost 30 per cent have been through the care system and similar proportions were homeless before entering prison.

Choose one of the following socio-demographic characteristics: age, sex, ethnicity, or socio-economic status (SES). Describe its relationship to crime, paying attention to whether that relationship is observable at the individual and/ or the aggregate-level. What are the major theoretical explanations for that relationship? To what extent are the results of prior empirical research consistent with those theoretical explanations?

Most societies throughout history and the world have developed a notion of social class. It is refers to hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups within society. How these social classes have been determined has been a common topic among social scientists throughout time. Two individuals who have headed this long standing debate are Karl Marx and Max Weber. In this paper I will be summarizing Marx and Weber’s theories on social class; how they are determined, their interests, and problems that may exist among groups. I will then provide my own critiques of their arguments.