The Roots Of Every Theory Of Criminal Law Creation

Biological Theories have been related to crime for a long time. The Biological Theory talks about how one’s brain has an impact on committing crime or not. Dr. Jim Fallon, a neuroscientist from California talks about the biological influences in a brain. He believes that the combination of three major aspects can determine whether someone is psychopathic or not. Fallon states a combination of genes, damage to the person 's brain and the environment surrounding the individual will have the biggest impact on a person (Fallon, 2009). A real world example of the biological theory in full effect was the crimes of David Berkowitz, aka “Son of Sam. Berkowitz was accused and found guilty of killing over 6 people in New York City. After being convicted and locked up for a few years, studies had shown that Berkowitz had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Berkowitz also claimed that his neighbor’s dog, Sam had told him to do the killings as well (Biography). Comparing the Biological theory to my own life was pretty simple because there is a genetic factor that runs in my dad’s side and that is tempers. Tempers tend to flare fairly easy, and luckily so far there has no issues with the law, however like Fallon had said, with the right combination, anyone is possible to commit a crime at any time. I feel like in a biological theory, this would have a major impact on my life

The conflict model is named appropriately as it directly conflicts with the consensus model. “Those who reject the consensus model do so on the ground that moral attitudes are not absolute. [sic] “In large democratic societies such as the United States, different segments of society will inevitably have different value systems and shared norms” (p.6). The conflict model basis its stance on social class, income, age, and race. This model cites that those who exist separately within each aforementioned category are fighting for control against the other. The only similarity of the consensus and conflict models is that in the consensus model, those who consider themselves of moral value and the norm in society are also considered so in the conflict model; making the decisions in criminal laws because these attributes make them superior. The above comparison can result in an integrated definition of crime. The basics of crime or criminal action are:

Functionalists look at society as a whole. They explain crime and deviance by stating that the source of deviance lies in the nature of society rather than the individual.

Sociologists for centuries have debated the structure by which society evolves. Theories are tested to explain the changes by which society operates. Structural functionalism and conflict theory are the main viewpoints sociologists use to evaluate the changes in the habits of society. Mass incarceration is an example of social phenomenon. Mass incarceration can be viewed as a structural functionalism or a conflict theory. I believe the influences that have created today’s society are dependent on the view of the individual and decisions and actions they take.

Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of functionalist approaches in explaining crime

Moreover, Societies are held together by both consensus with values and coercion. The functionalist view is that the balance of harmony among the society is held up by societal institutions. For example, schools, church and family are seen as the most significant foundation for an adequately functional society.

A conspiracy theory is a theory that argues that the rich and those with power seek the make sure the criminal justice system fails because they benefit from that failure. Conspiracy theories are hard to be proven and for it to succeed, it has to be kept a secret. There’s no credibility in the sources due to the degree of secrecy. Conspiracy theories are invalid because it doesn’t correspond with how people behave most of the time. The Pyrrhic defeat theory isn’t a conspiracy theory because the theory bases itself on why the criminal justice system fails and that’s due to our own shortcoming of not trying hard enough to prevent it.

The proper overall function of the system of criminal law in Hart’s view should be the function that follows the ideas of The Mercantile Theory. The Mercantile Theory is a system in which the freedom of choice and liberties of the individual, and the corporation in certain cases when it is acting as an individual, are maximized. Hart believes that the pursuit of happiness, along with freedom of choice and liberties of the individual, should be maximized by criminal law and always be taken into consideration when deliberating upon sentencing and judgements in cases.

There are three different theoretical perspectives. Functionalist perspective, which emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Functionalists see the contribution that it makes to society. The conflict perspective, assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources, and political representation. The interactionalist perspective, which generalize about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole (Schaefer).

The article seeks to address the question of why there is so little criminal justice theory. The thesis of the article is that disregarded associations between the inconvenience of political power and authoritative structures in the criminal justice framework hold a vital component to understanding the tasks of this framework, in regular and additionally atypical circumstances. The article begins by discussing the absence of theoretical initiative in criminal justice research.

Social conflict theory is the only one out of the vast number of criminology theories that deals directly with this problem. From out of it’s Marxist roots arose a theory which challenges the way in which today’s society views it’s legal system and the implications it has on it’s working class citizens. The nature and purpose of social conflict theories is to examine the social controls made by the ruling class and imposed on the rest of society.

The Functionalist view of making laws deal mainly with how laws come about. They are primarily created to restate the customs or rules and norms that make society function normally (Vago 2012). This theory makes laws seem more democratically decided because the people (at least the majority) within the society deem what the customs are. The idea behind this theory is that society is comprised of mainly harmonious social groups that ensure harmony through common belief. Basic values are not the culprit in dysfunctionality, such as conflict, and even though these conflicts exist, it doesn’t reflect the

The functionalist theories share a common structural explanation of causes of deviance . They assume that conformity in society is achieved through the existence of norms and values shared by the general consensus and that a high level of social integration is required for society to function successfully .

Structural Functionalism is “A major sociological perspective that views society as an interdependent system of parts (structures) and purposes (functions) that work together to make a society operate (Larkin, 2015)”. In order for a society to work all parts of the same society must work together. In structural functionalism society nearly depends on one another to stay afloat. If Something changes it can causes a disruption in society and begins to make things become unbalanced. Functionalism focuses on many groups that make up society, for example Government, Judiciary, and religion are some of the key groups that benefits in society strengthening their social relationships and the very world humans live in.

The functionalist theory interprets all parts of society: the functional and dysfunctional. Although crime and deviance may seem to be dysfunctional to society, they are important aspects of society because they help to create social norms and social order. Crime and