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Crime As A Social Problem Essay

1877 Words8 Pages

This essay will discuss crime as both a social problem and a sociological problem. Crime is seen as a typical function of society. Crime doesn’t happen without society. It is created and determined by the surrounding society. According to the CSO, the number of dangerous and negligent acts committed between the years of 2008 and 2012 rose from 238’000 in 2008 to 257’000 in 2012. This is an increase of nearly 20’000 recorded crimes in just 3 years. Note that these are only the recorded figures. Many more crimes go unreported. This may be because of intimidation, blackmail or embarrassment among many reasons. As far as crime is concerned, it is defined by the law. Deviance is unexpected behaviour, but not exactly considered criminal. Many consider crime as a social problem – a problem as defined by society, such as homelessness, drug abuse, etc. Others would say crime is a sociological problem – something defined as a problem by sociologists and should be dealt with accordingly by sociologists. This essay attempts to discover the boundaries between these two and ultimately come to an appropriate conclusion. When looking at crime as a social problem, there are many such …show more content…

It is an area which many great sociologists have focused some of their work around, for example Durkheim and Marx. These sociologists are considered to be the ‘founding fathers’ of sociology. They were some of the first people to use the study of society and its interactions within as an academic study. Sociologists created such terms as ‘boundary maintenance’ – society exists in solidarity and conformity within a boundary. Outside such a boundary, there are incidences of crime and deviance. Society within the boundary unites against those outside the boundary, therefore strengthening the solidarity of the society. According to sociologists, crime is a function of inequality. The more inequality seen in a society, the more crime

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