If human beings categorize behavior, experiences and events in a way they appear as representations of reality with effects that people can experience positively or negatively. Crime is examples of these social realities that people can collectively construct, deconstruct, and replace with less harmful realities (Rafter 1990). Crime is a violation of criminal law while deviance is a threatening and moral offensive behavior. Crime is harmful because it leads to people facing losses. Crime leads to physical, social and psychological harm. According to the authors of the article, several factors lead to rise and fall of crime. These are rise in criminal activities, social constructed fear of crime presence and a willingness of authorities classify some activities as potential crimes. The authors, however, state that real developments in crime are hard to establish because crime is a social construction.
In the first article, Pratt (2004) states that the main cause of crime in society is lack of parental socialization. Social constructionism draws on nominal philosophical tradition that social reality does not have any independent existence outside a human mind. Human beings, therefore, interpret the world as they like and make judgments according to how they perceive things. Human beings make representations in their mind that they believe reflect reality. This is in contrast to parental socialization, which takes the form of parental reaction to children's behavior, emotion and expression of emotion (Pratt 2004). These three studies provide a structure that will help in determining a child's self-control. When parents choose to involve themselves in their children's life, this will strengthen the parent-child relationship.
The first article argues that lack of parental socialization develops low social competence and in turn leads children to develop low self-control. Parental negative emotionality affects parental behavior, moral reasoning, aggression, pro-social behavior, beliefs and gender-role development. Parents need to develop the way they socialize with their children. This sets the foundation for the children to develop self-control that will make the children not to engage in criminal behaviors (Pratt 2004). The second article contrasts with the first in which it gives another version of social...
If integration with a conventional social group helps prevent suicide and "delinquency" (Hirschi 1969) and motivates people to fight, make sacrifices for a community, or commit deviant acts on behalf of a sub-cultural group, it should affect almost all forms of deviance. The absence of social integration with conventional groups should be influential in psychotic behavior (unless that specific behavior is organically determined and totally uncontrollable); without integration into
This is a form of punishment that is incremental in application, and establishes what the public perceives as unbreakable pattern of individual criminal recidivism (Siegel, p. 110). However, there is no evidence to support incarceration itself as a deterrent to crime (pp. 110-111). Many criminologists disagree with public opinion on the topic of three strikes incarceration (p. 110), which is, in brief, when a person commits a felony, that
Similarities and differences The two theories both agree that the structure of the society influences the level of crime. When people do not have the fundamental means of achieving success, they will look for other ways to do so. The two theories, however contrast with what causes increase in the level of crime. The anomie theory states that crime will increase when people have strain. This means that they have no
Why Due Process Matters in the US Constitution The Importance of the 6th Amendment and the Right to Effective Counsel Unit 1-5 Journals Criminology: The Core Unit 1 This unit looks at biological and psychological trait theories, social structures and how standards influence criminal outcomes. Conflict theory was the most interesting theory for crime because it looked at the persona conflict issue and that people are inherently in conflict with one another at some
Criminology Classical theory elucidates crime as a creation and outcome of beliefs that advantages of committing crimes are extremely greater than normative, socially acceptable behavior. The foundation of this school of thought on criminology is that crime is a rational choice and that many individuals have the capacity to resort to crime. In addition, individuals will commit crime subsequent to the comparison of prospective advantages and disadvantages of such actions. The
Criminology What was the "rational choice theory" of crime causation? The "rational choice theory" of crime causation holds that crime is consciously committed out of an intellectual desire to improve one's situation. Accordingly, the theory does not believe that delinquents are motivated through unconscious urges, but instead contends that people are goal-oriented. Another implication of the theory is that everyone, regardless of their neurological profile, has the ability to act in a
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