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Critical Criminological Theory

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Unlike the other theories and groups of theories that have been discussed so far, critical criminology focuses on social conditions and constructs on a much larger, systematic scale. In Bonger’s theory of Criminality and Economic Conditions, he emphasizes the connection between poor economic standing and crime and also the connection between good economic standing and crime. In a capitalist society, the set-up is much like a barter system, in which work is exchanged for wages for individuals to live off of. Bonger used the term egoism to define what capitalism causes people to; their focus is only on themselves and what they want to gain. “In his view, capitalism breeds egoism because it is, by its very nature, an economic system in which individual …show more content…

People who are privileged will break the law to get more and more, exploiting people who are less privileged than they are in the process. Bonger uses the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat classes to illustrate how the upper class prospers at the expense of the lower class. The class known as the lower proletariat, who are ineffective in trading work for a wage, could very well turn to crime out of desperation. The poor participate in crime in order to not starve and the rich participate in crime so they can get even richer. The other strength is that one of the core themes is that “…the present economic system and its consequences weaken the social feelings…” (Cullen, Agnew, & Wilcox, 2014). Morals and empathy have no place in the upper classes when in a capitalist system; the need for more and more overshadow everything else and therefore lead to egoism and apathy. One of the major weaknesses of Bonger’s theory is that the solution to reducing crime is for there to be a shift from capitalism to socialism. That would take numerous, massive social changes for that to even be in the realm of possibility and as of now, it’s simply unrealistic. There aren’t any smaller-scale solutions that wouldn’t take years, several steps and attempts, or a social uprising. Another weakness of the theory is that are aren’t any concrete factors specified that harbor criminality that are caused by

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The objective of criminological theories is to help one gain an understating of crime and criminal justice. Speculations cover the making and the infringing upon of the law, criminal and degenerate conduct, and additionally examples of criminal movement All of the listed theories play an important role regarding the reason why Aaron Hernandez committed the

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In F. T. Cullen, J. P. Wright & K. R. Blevins (Eds.), Taking stock: The status of criminological theory, advances in criminological theory (Vol. 15, pp. 251–273). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Kramer, R. C. (1985). Defining the concept of crime: A humanistic perspective. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 12(September), 469–487.

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Short Summary: Chapter 2 of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison was about how the way society sees crime can be distorted by the media, the justice system, and the information we are presented with about what crime really is. It points out that medical neglect, known environmental hazards, dangerous workplace conditions, and poverty cause more injuries yearly than murders, assaults, and robberies. Most people see the latter as “crime,” but not the former. Long Summary: Chapter 2 of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison discusses people’s skewed perspective when it comes to what they think crime really is. The reader is asked to do an exercise regarding their own reason.

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”(Reiman, 2010, p.5) This means that by creating an image that our system is trying to fight crime, but at the same time allowing certain crimes to exist and scare society, it benefits the wealthy in several ways. First, it promotes that the wealthy population is

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And, the crime starts with the street only, Reiman told that in the title only that poor get prison, so this is the reason why poor gets prison, because they are doing street crimes. We are totally unaware of those people so we are not able understand that how they create crime, as per my assumption most probable cause of the crime is the drugs, money and depression. But, our society is totally unaware of this that those people might also change, if we provide them good education, but instead of providing them positive and good habits they are blaming them as always. Moreover, our society is not understanding that if we do not provide them a good habit, they will get more influenced by the readily available guns and all those stuff to increase more crime rates. However, Reiman is telling that we have to provide them as much as possible support and positivity to decrease the crime

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The first is that criminal law does not define crime properly because it does not include the most dangerous antisocial behavior that takes place (Reiman, p. 67). The second is that police and prosecutors do not make charge and arrest decisions based on criteria that will help them get the most dangerous criminals (Reiman, p. 67). The third is that criminal convictions are also not necessarily the ones that are most dangerous (Reiman, p. 67). The fourth is that the decisions that sentencing judges make are not made with the intentions of protecting society from the most dangerous criminals, nor do they reflect proper punishment according to the crime and the harm done by it (Reiman, p. 67). The fifth is that the first four hypotheses validate that criminal acts are indirectly identified with the poor (Reiman,

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It does not consider other factors such as criminal associations, individual traits, and inner strains, which plays a significant role in determining punishment for the individuals in committing crimes. It is observed that this theory endeavours to know that whether the activities of crime as well as the victim’s choice, criminals commit the activities on start from rational decisions. The theory also determines that criminals consider different elements before committing crime. They engage in the exchange of ideas before reaching on any final decision. These elements consist of consequences of their crimes, which include revealing their families to problems or death, chances of being arrested, and others elements, which comprises of placement of surveillance systems (Walsh & Hemmens, 2010; Lichbach,

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People in poor situations feel like they’re not worth anything and so if they do crime they don’t care about the results because they don’t really care about themselves. That’s just how Americans think. If someone is well off and don’t need to worry how much they have, then they are going to think higher of themselves and have a less chance of doing crime. There are some people who have so much money that think they are above the law and will do something stupid and think they won’t be in trouble because of how much money they

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There are many theories that suggest that crime is constructed socially, or is a product of the society in which the crime is committed. One such theory, proposed by Robert Merton, is known as strain theory. While strain theory is a useful model for explaining how societal values can drive people to commit crimes, it has several flaws and does not focus on how laws are made and how this contributes to the formation of crime. While Merton suggests that laws are created from consensus within a society, it will be argued that strain theory can also support the idea that laws are a “product of conflict” (Hagan 5). Strain theory is founded on the idea that the goals of a society and the accepted means of achieving said goal causes strain that can

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Assignment Nine Critical criminology is the idea that the media and the criminal justice system are the things that shape the publics view on crime. These sources influence our ideas of who commits crime and who is victimized by crime. These sources use their influence of crime to continue to control how the public sees crime and uses that to further their own agenda. Whereas, left realism is the idea that the depicted visions of crime are somewhat true. Some people are more likely to be victimized, however the media and criminal justice systems over exaggerate these crimes in order to instill higher levels of fear.

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It has been observed that there are numerous researches conducted on youth crime particularly in the United Kingdom which gave the emphasis on young individuals as offenders instead of victims of crime. Moreover, radical criminology significantly contributed to understand the youth crime through different theories. According to Yar (2012), radical criminology is known as the conflict philosophy. It centres its perceptions on crime and on regulation in the faith that capitalist civilisations precipitate as well as describe crime as the possessors by sense of production utilise their influence to endorse commandments that would regulate the working class and suppress intimidations to the supremacy of the governing class. Radical criminology draws together the studies of interactionism, labelling, Marxism, critical criminology and gender which provide the understanding of youth crime from different perspective as discussed in the paper.

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“The subculture of poverty thesis is that the values of the poor either directly cause crime, because people socialized into particular sets of values, norms, and beliefs engage in crime rather than patiently wait for legitimate opportunities, or indirectly cause crime because their values do not attach sufficient importance to such things as education and hard work”(Crutchfield). This is saying because people are poor and go directly to committing crimes instead of trying to work towards opportunities. They should be trying to do better for themselves and they should be focusing on trying to get a job or trying to get good grades to get into

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Social Disorganization Theory Name Institutional Affiliation Crime in our societies is a widespread social phenomenon dating back centuries ago and ranges from low-level delinquencies to high-level offences. Chances are high that one would be involved in crime during their lifetime, either as a victim, or as an assailant. Nevertheless, what really motivates individuals to commit crime? Studies have shown that in different political, economic, and cultural backgrounds, crime occurs in diverse patterns making it a serious social problem. Hence, criminology and sociology experts have examined numerous aspects of crime in an attempt to elucidate why individuals commit crime, and cogently explain its social context.

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The associations are reviewed as an aspect of social structure and crime because of associations due to economic struggles by classes of people or groups (Schmalleger, 2012). Social disorganization theory views society as a living organism and that criminal behavior is compared to a disease. Strain theory looks at the lack of fit between socially approved success

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If an individual can learn how to attain goals with crime due to the illegitimate opportunities then they can just as easily learn legitimate ways just the same. As we know, the opportunity theory can be used to fill in the gaps of Merton’s strain theory, Merton fails to recognize that illegitimate opportunity as well as legitimate opportunities play an important role in crime. Merton believes that the pressures or strains brought on through social interactions. Cloward and Ohlin make a valid point when they suggest that to explain crime you have to take into consideration a person’s access to legitimate opportunity and access to illegitimate opportunity. Moreover, this theory can also be used to inform and extend the social learning theory.

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