Theories Of Social Construction

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

Firstly, Oxford Dictionaries (n.d.) currently defines crime as ‘an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law’ and a social construct as ‘a concept or perception of something based on the collective views developed and maintained within a society or social group’. Christie (2004) offers an alternative perspective that crime, as an entity, does not exist and is a social construct. He mentions that ‘crime does not exist. Only acts exist, acts often given different meanings within various social frameworks. Acts, and the meaning given them, are our data.’ He discusses the theory that crime is utilised as a universal classification for a range of bad ‘acts’. Within the context of crime, these ‘acts’ consist of a range of behaviours that members of a society have reached a moral consensus on what is seen as

The SAGE dictionary of criminology- “Crime is not a self-evident and unitary concept. Its constitution is diverse, historically relative and continually contested. As a result an answer to the question ‘what is crime?’ depends upon which of its multiple constitutive elements is emphasized. This in turn depends upon the theoretical position taken by those defining crime”.

To understand the real motives of criminals, sociologists explain their deviance behavior and illegal activities based on the principles of different sociological crime theories. The sociological crime theories provide guidelines and principles that help criminologists in understanding and solving particular criminal incidences. This paper provides a description, analysis, comparison, and contrast between two sociological crime theories, including anomie and labeling theories. The anomie theory refers to the state of confusion arising due to the conflict, disagreement, or absenteeism of social customs.

A large reason for the writing of this book is that there is currently not much research concerning or call for a criminal justice reform. According to Alexander, the main goal of the book is to “stimulate a much-needed conversation about the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy in the United States” (2012:16). Another premise for this research is that it is no longer socially correct to use race to discriminate against people, so Alexander argues that society as a whole is now

America has been built on inequality and evolving forms of racism for generations. Our criminal justice system is a reflection of the structural racism that has and is permeating our country. The criminal justice system of the United States is not explicitly racist, however there are many internal and unspoken policies that enact a structural racism through policing and the courts, however, our criminal justice system shows more racial disparities than racism. The lenses of two individuals who have in some way experienced the criminal justice system show the internal issues revolving around race, In Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleeve’s work Crook County and Wilbert Rideau’s In the Place of Justice, we see how the structural racism and more so the racial disparities play huge roles in shaping the life outcomes for people of color.

The social construction theory is based on the reality that the society has created that may seem obvious to a person who agrees to it. In other words, our life experiences and interaction towards others is the way we create our reality through social interaction. This means that we were not born with this sense of knowledge, but was taught through social interaction and our life experiences (Orem 2001a, 7). Social construction is based on the categories of difference which are race, gender, and social class (Ore, 2011a: 8).

Racial inequality in the criminal justice system is a belief that through research and statistics is a structural inequality that exists at different levels noted throughout the system stemming from those convicted and those convicting. According to literature published by the Leadership Conference, the nation’s premier civil and human right coalition, “racial inequality is growing, not receding. Our criminal laws, while facially neutral, are enforced in a manner that is massively and pervasively biased. The injustices of the criminal justice system threaten to render irrelevant fifty years of hard-fought civil rights progress” (Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, 2011). In today’s

While systemic racism is observable in many institutions today, its presence in the criminal justice system is increasingly becoming a large concern. Various sources of statistical data indicate a strong correlation between race and a negative treatment in the criminal justice system, as outlined in Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehsisi Coates and Paul Butler in Chokehold. Although some continue to disregard the existence of systemic racism in the criminal justice system, those who have acknowledged its presence debate the best mechanism to dissolve this issue. Among the various theories which discusses the concept of group rights, Iris Marion Young’s politics of positional difference, which advocates for the implementation of policies that

Social class differences are used to explain racial differences in criminal involvement in the United States. Social Class is defined as a division of a society based on social and economic status. Usually when a person thinks about crime in the United States, he also thinks about the race of the person and the crime. Thinking about crime anywhere in the world is to think about why certain groups of population have more criminal activity and involvement than other groups. People usually focus on race when they are looking at crime. Blacks are often victimized as being criminals than the whites. In Robert D. Crutchfield’s essay he talks about the subculture of violence and the subculture of poverty which explains crimes such as drug sales, property crime, and robbery. Within the subculture of violence he talks about crimes such as homicide and assault. This essay will discuss and explore the author’s central point’s as well as how Crutchfield describes subcultures of violence and poverty and if he agrees with the other explanations made by scholars about racial differences in criminal involvement.

Crime is defined by Muncie (2006) as behaviour which is proscribed by criminal law, however, he similarly to Treadwell (2013) acknowledges that this in itself is not enough to depict its full scope. The perceptions and understandings of what people consider to be criminal are highly variable. The notion of crime is constantly changing and evolving, and is relative to both the time period but also the societies geographical location. This was comparably argued by Treadwell (2013) in his analysis of crime. What is considered to be criminal in one era may not be true of other eras of time. This understanding also varies between different societies and their geographical differences. There is no one broad understanding of what is considered criminal and what is not, or where this line should be drawn. Crime is a continuously contested concept across various spheres of the academic world (Muncie, 2006). There are legal perspectives but there are also social and political views of crime, with similarities and differences between

It is important to not only be educated about people’s differences but also comprehend why these differences exist. As criminal justice professionals we are given an immense amount of power at every stage of the system to make decisions that have the ability to completely change someone’s life for the better or even for the worse (Maniglia 2016). To ensure that the best decision is being made for each defendant, we as professionals, must take into consideration the reasons why people ended up in the system in the first place. For example, when encountering individuals who were raised in or near the inner city statistically they are more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system as defendants because committing crimes are not seen as criminal acts but rather acts that temporarily solidify a social status.

Crime as a social construction is the idea that reality is created in our minds. What we perceive something to be ends up to be what it is. Crime, often described as deviance is a labelled behaviour. If one does not view an action as deviant at the time then it is not deviant, this shows us how deviance is a relative concept. In terms of how different people perceive crime, depending on what religious or ethnic backgrounds one may come from, there is heavy variation between individuals. What is illegal or legal in one culture can be very different in another culture. It can

Throughout the years, the association between a criminal offense and a criminal have become more relevant. Although there are many theories that try to illustrate the concept of why crimes happen, no theory has a profound influence of understanding an individual’s nature, relationship, development, and a society itself (Coleman & Ganong, 2014). To further explain, “theories of crime are defined in relation to modernity, spanning their development from the enlightenment to the present, with the advent of postmodernism” (Miller, 2012, p. 1798). In other words, theories of crime are an approach to understanding an individuals behaviour and actions in their environment, society, and themselves that may lead to crime. Nevertheless, within this paper, it will be comparing the case of

Many crimes go unreported due to the inconsistency with the UCR (Uniform Crime Reports) lists. The chapter 4 of the textbook explains the three sociological theories of crime suggesting that crime can lead to social change, the more inequalities the greater the crime and the perspective of labeling the deviances. There is not always a specific way to identify a criminal. People that commit crimes range from young to hold and are of all races. There is an extreme intelligence that is involved in analyzing