...The Role of Sociology in Criminal Justice A person cannot avoid the experience of making decisions from a list full of options and choices in this life. The choices that an individual makes are vital in determining the shape his or her later life will take. Making the choice to attend or not to attend college is one of the choices a high school graduate has to make. It is essential for an individual standing at the cross roads after high school to be visionary in making a decision to join a college. Attending college is worth it because the knowledge obtained cannot be taken away from you. College education contributes significantly to the person development. College learning is both inside and outside classroom. The college experiences are a reminder that adulthood comes with more responsibility. In addition, it instills in a person the virtue that it is essential to work hard for one to succeed. There exist studies that support the need for a student to attend college. In a survey investigating the importance of college education today as compared to high school education, it was found that almost 90% of the respondents admitted that college education is important. The presentation of this paper agrees with these findings. With the changing societal needs, college education has become important like high school education. Therefore, the perception toward college education makes it important. There are other ways in which attending a college is important. First, college...
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...rationale to thought in motive. There are also different thoughts to explaining criminal behaviors, one being classical school of thought and the other being a positivist school of thought. For the focus of this paper we will be looking at the four main theories: Social control theory, Strain theory, Differential Association Theory, and Neutralization theory. Social control theory is the theory that those who engage in socializing or social learning build self-control and lessens the likelihood of antisocial behavior. This theory also explains the conformity of behavior accepted in society. Anti-social behavior due to lack of social links within society lend strong indications to criminal behaviors. Travis Hirschi’s held this same theory of ‘‘social control’’ stating that if a man is not variously bound to society by some attachment, commitment, or involvement, he is, at risk criminally. (Muraven, 2006) One of the strengths in this theory is the recognition of wrongdoing by offenders. With the recognition of wrongdoing should come the accountability of action. Therein lies the weakness to this theory as accountability for one’s actions tends to be ignored in today’s society, easily dismissed or excused by another theory. Fact of the matter is most people knowingly commit crime in the hopes they won’t get caught, but also know if they do that leniency is most likely. The strain theory suggests that criminal activity is relative to economic status. Thus suggesting that the lower...
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...Social Organized Crime Perspective Fiona Williams CJA 384 February 10, 2014 Professor Edward Rafailovitc Social Organized Crime Perspective In society, the social structure of organized crime is determined by how the enterprise is organized, such as institutions, statuses, and roles. The framework of the social structure in organized crime is that the criminal organizations are governed by the concept of family, which is called a social institution. The concept of social institution has three key essential elements. These elements include defining social institution, explaining the relationship between social institutions and organized crime, and explaining how empirical and speculative theories are the most applicable when applied to organized crime and criminal behavior. The first element that is essential to social institutions is the definition of social institution. The concept of social institution is defined as “ a group or organization that has a particular purpose, goal, or task and accomplishes the successful completion of this goal, purpose, or task by influencing and persuading individuals in a community to participate, and assist with achieving this objective” (Limbaugh, 2010). This concept is linked to organized crime because it consists of three or more people in an organization committing illegal activities for the sole purpose of gaining profit or power. The second element that is significant to social institution is the relationship between social institutions...
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...offender's behaviors. Keywords: Trait Theory. Trait theory states that our personality traits, and our genetics can predispose us to crime. The theory states that some individuals are born criminal and can be identified by primitive physical traits. There are several theories that were developed early on. In this paper we will briefly discuss early studies in the field of criminal anthropology led by Cesare Lambroso. The content of this paper will then focus on psychological trait theories, and biosocial trait theories of crime. Lastly, this paper will provide my opinion on the video that was presented to us in this week's assignment, "Inside San Quentin – Anger Management Behind Bars", and the effectiveness of anger management programs provided to inmates in an attempt to control their anger and aggression. There are several studies that were conducted by many renowned scientists in the field of personality traits and how they account for anger, aggression, and criminality. The earliest research into criminality and psychological, as well as physical traits was conducted by Cesare Lambroso. Born in 18th century, Lambroso was an Italian university professor and a criminologist. His early work focused on an individuals physical traits, and it's association with crime. He attempted to associate certain physical features such as the size of an individual's jaw to tendencies toward sociopathy and criminal behavior. He proposed that majority of criminals had certain...
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...White-Collar Crime The literature supports that many criminals go through a rational choice process when committing crime. Rational choice theories are among the fastest growing theories in social science today. Many sociologists and political scientists defend the claim that rational choice theory can provide the basis for a unified and comprehensive theory of social behavior. What distinguishes rational choice theory from other forms of theory is that it denies the existence of any kinds of action other than the purely rational and calculative. All social action can be seen as rationally motivated, as instrumental action, however much of it may appear to be irrational or non-rational. Rational Choice Theory, law-violating behavior should be viewed as an event that occurs when an offender decides to risk violating the law after considering his or her own personal situation need for money, personal values, learning experiences and situational factors how well a target is protected, how affluent the neighborhood is, how efficient the local police happen to be. Before choosing to commit a crime, the reasoning criminal evaluates the risk of apprehension, the seriousness of the expected punishment, the value of the criminal enterprise, and his or her immediate need for criminal gain. Crime prevention or at least crime reduction may be achieved through policies that convince criminals to refrain from criminal activities, delay their actions, or avoid a particular...
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...society today. It will show how the theory is applied to the everyday lives of some criminals and how it can be applied to acts that may not be considered criminal. We will further explore Sutherland's nine key points that were used to detail what the building blocks of the theory are, and how those points have been applied to other studies. Research by other sociologists will be discussed in regards to differential association and how those researchers chose to interpret Sutherland's theory and use it to further explore instances of crime and deviance in their own research. Finally I will discuss how true the researchers stayed to the original theorists and reflect on my own opinions about the theory of differential association. Introduction The theory of differential association is one that has been used to attempt to identify why people commit crime for years. Since Edwin Sutherland created the theory in 1947 it has been looked to by numerous researchers both using the theory for inspiration and criticizing its legitimacy. This paper will discuss Sutherland's theory in its entirety including it's creation and what the theory itself states, its applications in our society as well as how other researchers have applied it to their own research, and the findings that have arisen because of the theory. The primary argument behind the theory of differential association is the idea that criminal behavior is learned through social interactions with others within an individuals lifetime...
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...young people and the criminal system is often referred to as juvenile justice. The reasons behind any young person becoming involved in crime are varied and complex. For example, possible factors such as poor parental supervision, drug and alcohol abuse, neglect and abuse, homelessness, negative peer associations, poor personal and social skills or difficulties in school and employment. There are several sociological theories that back these factors, such as Social Learning, Differential Association, Containment, Social Control, and Labeling. The Labeling theory is defined as, “A social process perspective that sees continued crime as a consequence of the limited opportunities for acceptable behavior that follow from the negative responses of society to those defined as offenders.” ( Schmalleger). In 1938, Frank Tannenbaum first introduced the Labeling Theory. Tannenbaum stated, "The process of making the criminal is therefore the process of tagging, defining, identifying, segregating, describing, and emphasizing any individual out for special treatment becomes a way of stimulating, suggesting, and evoking the very traits that are complained of. A person becomes the thing they are described as being." The Labeling theory is a sociological approach to explaining how criminal behavior is perpetuated by the police and others. This theory looks at how labels applied to individuals influence their behavior; particular negative labels (such as "criminal" or "felon") promote...
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...teachers, church and peers. There are some criminologists who study the importance of socialization in regards to crime. They really look at how family, school and peers influence criminal behavior. Edwin Sutherland was the first criminologist to focus on the relationship between crimes and the socialization process rather than physiology, race, mental disorder etc. Sutherland developed the differential association theory, the process of social interaction by which individual acquires definitions favorable and unfavorable to law violation. The differential association theory states that through interaction with people, individuals learn their values, attitudes and motives for criminal behavior. This is the idea of cultural transmission. Sutherland presented nine propositions explaining differential association and they are as follows; criminal behavior is learned, it’s learned via communication, it occurs within personal groups, when learned the learning includes ways to commit crimes and their direct motives, direction of motives and where it’s derived, delinquency occurs as a result of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law, it may vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity, the process of learning criminal behavior by association...
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...Discussion Question 3 The Social Bond Theory along with the Self Control Theory both help explain why crimes and deviant behavior occur. They both do so in there own way explaining why youth get involved in criminal behavior. The Social Bond Theory is also known as the social control theory; it is the belief that forming personal relationships is the most important part of human development. These personal relationships that are formed keep the youth from committing crimes or other deviant behavior. These personal relationships can be with family, school, church, government, and within the community. The Self Control Theory explains why the majority of people choose not to participate or become involved in criminal behavior. Throughout the theory it explains how people with a high level of self-control are going to be considerably less likely to participate in criminal behavior and how if you have a low level of self control you are more likely to become involved in criminal behavior. With these two theories they talk about acts of delinquency and what might affect them but the two theories them selves contradict themselves because if you are not in a certain group you may believe that you have a sense of self control and believe that you don’t need others in your life. Even with the belief that you have self-control you may still act out because you don’t have a social bond with anyone or any group. I agree with the Social bond theory more because In my personal...
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...Kaplan University Donna Brown119 Monday, November 23, 2015 Deviant behavior is any behavior that is contrary to the dominant norms of society. There are many different theories on what causes a person to perform deviant behavior, including biological explanations, psychological explanations, and sociological explanations. Numerous theories have been established to explain criminal behavior. While some theories are not as common, others have evolved and are used in many criminal studies today. Up-to-date criminologists combine the most relevant characteristics of sociology, psychology, biological, and social-psychological to advance their understanding of criminal behavior. Professionals in this field study factors that contribute to criminal activities, make relevant policy recommendations and draw conclusions based on those assessments. (Varying Theories on Crime, 2015) Several theories attempt to explain criminal behavior. Most theories assume: * Crime is part of human nature. * Crime is based on biological, psychological, and/or economic aspects. One of the earliest approaches to explaining the causes of crime was the classical theory, which is defined as a product of the Enlightenment, based on the assumption that people exercise free will and are consequently completely responsible for their actions. In the classical theory, human behavior, including criminal behavior, is motivated by a self-indulgent wisdom, in which actors with the potential pleasure...
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...endeavored to clarify criminal behavior. These categories are Psychological, sociological and Biological speculations. All three theories attempted to make great efforts to establish credibility and dependability. In spite of the fact that ideas that included crime causation and establishment of current criminology started with a basic and reasonable methodology of classic criminology. Recognizing the reason for criminal behavior from the hypothesis stance turned into a particular and significant assignment of criminology. Classic theorists accepted that criminal conduct is represented by an independent and free choice and their perspectives were simply philosophical. Enrico Ferri, an Italian Criminologist Suggested a characterization of criminal sorts. These classifications were: • Born or instinctive • The insane • The passionate • The involuntary • The occasional • The habitual...
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...the formation of an individual’s identity to be a learned response to what a person has been raised around or adapted to. In Memphis, Tennessee, many people within this state are influenced to criminal behavior at a very young age. According to WREG Memphis Channel 3 news, Memphis was only just ranked below Detroit and Oakland, California, but the Chair of the Crime Commission Ben Adams said he isn't sure how accurate the rankings are. Cordarro Vaughn's a lifelong Memphian, and he was anything but surprised when he heard the FBI labeled Memphis the third most dangerous city in the country (Rufener,Katie, 2015). When we talk about events or attitudes to a explanation of beliefs people reside in Memphis, Tennessee would accept for explaining criminal behavior, it points out the general connection of socialization opposed to the individual mindset. The social learning theory believes that an individual’s identity is not the product of the unconscious, but instead is the result of modeling oneself in response to the expectations of others. Behaviors and attitudes develop in response to reinforcement and give hope to the people around them. While social learning theorists acknowledge that childhood experience is important, they also believe that the identity people is formed by the behaviors and attitudes of others. Another factor that contributes to Memphis crime rate is that much of the crime is the product of poverty that most individuals are living with. When people are surround...
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...Criminal Acts and Choices Paper Your Name Here CJA/204 University of Phoenix Criminal Acts and Choices Over the years there have been several different schools of theory which have been developed with the intent of explaining and understanding criminal behavior. These schools of theory include sociological, biological, psychobiological, psychological, classical, social process, emergent, and conflict. There are a variety of factors which play a role in determining what is considered criminal activity. Several factors within social, political, and economic inequities have had a roll in creating conflict within society which has led to criminal activities. As a part of the human development process, failed self-direction, an absence of “normal” opportunities, association with defective individuals, inadequate social roles as well as social organization and disorganization are a variety of factors which have led to individuals engaging in what is considered criminal activities. Some theorists say that criminal behavior derives from psychobiological factors such as hormones and human DNA; while others point to inappropriate behavioral conditioning as a contributing factor to criminal activity. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries a classical school of crime causation dominated criminology. Prior to classical theories, superstitious beliefs and mysticism explained the reasoning for deviance. The classical school recognized rationality...
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...There has always been the ongoing debate as to whether nature or nurture plays a role in criminality. Some individuals may be predisposed and have a higher risk of developing criminal behavior due to some biological factors. Psychologists have been able to identify patterns using twin or adoption studies finding links with genetic testing which shows aggressiveness or the lack of self-control of one’s behavior. A meta-analysis preformed on 12 twins and 3 adoptions showed anti-social behavior that linked to genetics of criminality. This reveled that forty-eight percent could possibly be linked to genetically controlled criminal tendencies. (Mason, 1994) With the possible links to aggressiveness and genetics there have also been studies done into levels of hormones and their effects. Generally speaking, men tend to be more aggressive than women, this fact has led some to believe a spike in testosterone could in part be responsible for aggressive or criminal behavior. Olweus and his colleagues (1980) conducted a study of 58 16-year-old boys by testing various responses to physical and verbal aggression, frustration tolerance, self-confidence, and anxiety, and also obtaining blood samples, testing for testosterone levels. The study revealed that while personality measures had no significant relationship to testosterone, there were verbal and physical aggression in response to threats. Also that the lack of tolerance for frustration was related to testosterone level. Based on this...
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...A psychological theory is a type of biological theory who states that individuals commit criminal behavior against others because is derived from heredity. According to the author “Under this model, violent or criminal behavior is beyond the control of the individual and is cause by the persons biology” (Gosselin, 2014, p. 69). This theory assets that impulsive behavior is caused by genetic uncontrollable behavior that has been passed from generation from generation. Research on evolutionary psychology asserts that universally males are more aggressive because since ancient times males needed to commit violent-aggressive for protection of resources and intrasexual competition (same sex competition). In addition, evolutionist argues that humans have inherited biological and...
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