Criminology. Crime A Contested Concept: The Nature of Crime - Assignment Example

Criminology Section This section of the study focuses on why crime is considered as a contested concept. The dominant constructions of crime will be discussed in this section and will be compared to determine the nature of crime. Here it will be discussed about the concept and nature of crime to determine the understanding of the ‘contested’ factor. Crime – A Contested Concept: The Nature of Crime: Much research has been conducted on the organized nature of crime to which is associated the term “contested concept”. Different meanings of organized crime have been studied and obtained by researchers. For example, nine categories of activity in relation to organized crime were identified by Maltz in the year 1976. These activities include activities such as corruption, violence, level of sophistication, continuity, and discipline. The importance of “power, profit and perpetuity” has been focused by Abadinsky in the year 1994. Organized crime is said to be “nonideological, hierarchical, having limited or exclusive membership, perpetuating itself, willing to use illegal bribery and violence, having a specialized division of labor, monopolistic and having clear rules and regulations” (Wright 2013). When nature of crime is discussed, their linkages or connection with other activities are often focused. For example, the intake of drugs is often associated with crime. Dominant constructions of crime arise with the dominant constructions of the world. This primarily results from the fact that human beings and the society as a whole has very less direct experience with the reality of crime and justice occurring in the world. In such cases, the media has a significant role to play enabling conceptualization of crime in the minds of human beings. Thus the reality of crime that gets portrayed in the minds of the population in the society creates a dominant construction of the nature of crime. It is the dominant construction of crime occurring in the world that eventually gets accepted as valid by the society. Thus whether a social behavior would be accepted as crime or not is determined by the dominant construction of the crime mostly influenced by the role played by the media (Henry and Lanier 2001). Thus in particular crime for its organized nature is considered as a contested concept. It encompasses the “illegal behavior of the system” that is performed by an organized crime group that intends to gain profit strengthened by the fear of crime. Examples of crimes occurring in countries such as Ireland reflect examples of such concepts. Organized crimes are found to be more problematic for the society at large and also for monitoring or controlling them. Effective control system of the crimes seems to be compromised in such cases (Lauracahillane 2013). It is this nature of the organized crime that is represented by the media and creates dominant constructions. As the media represent the crimes occurring, criminals and victims are in many cases “over represented, under represented or misrepresented” as well. This in turn influences the conceptualization of crime in the minds of people. It depends on the news media in particular as to which groups are more highlighted and in positive or negative sense of the crime that has occurred (Greer n.d.). It can thus be concluded from this section of the study that the occurrence and understanding of crime in its organized ways are conceptualized in the minds of human beings through the dominant constructions mostly created by the media. Thus crime in its organized form essentially proves to be a contested crime where its representation through the media determines its concept in the minds of the society. Section 2: This section of the study focuses on the usefulness of official criminal statistics trying to determine what can be learnt from such statistics as well as their limitations in providing the true picture of the occurrence and problem of crime. It will be discussed whether official criminal statistics are actually useful in determining the extent of crime that takes place. Official Criminal Statistics: Usefulness and Limitations: It is the role of the police to collect official statistics on crimes occurring in the society. Also, the courts and the crime departments of a country are associated with the police in fulfilling the official statistics of crime occurring in the region. For example in the United Kingdom, the British Crime Survey (BCS) is associated with this role. Such statistics are basically formed to inform the society about the level and frequency of crimes occurring in the society. Such statistics are primarily supposed to provide information on what kinds of crimes are occurring and their effects on the society, as well as the rates of crime increasing or decreasing in a region (Official Statistics and Crime 2013). However, there are problems and limitations of this information as could be obtained in the case of countries such as the UK where the BCS has been found to encounter problems associated with official statistics of crime. The major problem that it faces is that they are capable of collecting and presenting figures from that which is recorded. Hence many individuals believe that such information are “far away” from the actual data related to the occurrence of crimes thus making such statistical information less reliable and valid for them. The major limitation associated with official statistics of crimes is that many people believe that several crimes are not recorded in the information presented by the statistics (Official Statistics and Crime 2013). For example, “quite a few crimes are committed against prostitutes by their clients but that the victims of these crimes simply do not go to the police to report such crimes because they themselves live in a twilight zone of legality/illegality; crimes committed by drug dealers against drug takers are not likely to be reported to the police” (Official Statistics and Crime 2013). It has been highlighted even by the criminologists that information provided by the official statistics are often not accurate as crime in particular is “difficult to measure” (Crime, Offenders and Victims n.d.). Evaluation of crimes and criminal behaviors are different and varied with differences in places and individuals who are in charge of the evaluation of the processes (Crime, Offenders and Victims n.d.). Considering these factors, the usefulness of the official statistics of crimes is questioned as the information provided by such statistics may not include all information related to occurrence of crimes and their effects. In many cases, criminal offenses do not come under the attention of the police and the courts and hence do not even get reported. Such cases are thus not considered in a serious manner, although they are crimes as well. Without all forms of crimes and criminal activities occurring being recorded and presented through the statistics, the official statistics of crime cannot be said to be useful in its true meaning (Stephen 2000). It can thus be concluded from this section of the study that official statistics of crimes enable learning of the occurrences of crimes in a region and their rates and effects. However, with its limitations and problems being encountered, the usefulness of the statistics can be said to be questioned thus making such information less valid and reliable for understanding crimes. Section 3: This section of the study focuses particularly on the role played by the media in constructions of crimes in the minds of the people in the society. It discusses on how the media tends to inform and misinform the society about the nature and the extent of crime occurring in the society. The role and nature of the media will be hence mentioned to have an understanding of their influence on construction of crimes. Media Construction of Crimes: The media has a significant role to play in social construction of crimes. People do not directly experience with the crimes that occur in the society. They tend to gather knowledge about such incidents from their surroundings and mostly from the media with the news media in particular that represent the different incidents of crimes occurring in the society. They tend to present the occurrence of crimes in a way that individuals get influenced by such information, as media is highly trusted upon by the society for gathering information (Surette 2010). It has been found that the “news media shape public opinion concerning the ‘nature’ of crime in our society” (Gerber and Jensen 2007). Since individuals depend on the media for information, thus they are influenced by all information represented by the media (Gerber and Jensen 2007). Hence it is completely in the hands of the media as to what they present to the world that can either be under representation of the crime, over representation of the crime, or even misrepresentation, and are believed by the public at large. Public in general is surrounded effectively by the mass media and depends significantly on the source for all forms of information (). In relation to the representation of crime, the media has the ability to portray the occurrence of a crime in their own ways and the dependency of the public on the media allows them to believe what they can see and hear from the media, even if they are misinformed. Hence, the attitude of the public is mould and influenced towards their perception about crimes and criminals. It may not always be possible for the journalists and reporters to get hold of any single information related to particular news and hence they tend to become selective in nature. This implied that they evaluate crimes in their own ways and then present them to the public. The chances of misrepresentation increase as a result of this. The public however would not judge such factors and would believe and get influenced from the information they obtain from the media (Chan and Chan 2012). As far as the main features of the media in representation of crimes are concerned, studies reveal that “the media penetrate every aspect of social life” and are important to the public in general (Thompson, Young and Burns 2000). News related to crimes has been high on the priority of the media since a long time. Media leads to social construction of crimes in the minds of the public. With the help of the media, the conception of crimes has been possible in the minds of the public who in turn tend to believe and set up their minds towards positive or negative influences of crimes occurring in the society. The broadcasts and publications of the media are also influenced by economic factors of a country (Thompson, Young and Burns 2000). Thus it can be concluded from this section of the study that media has a significant role to play in construction of crimes in the minds of individuals even with at times misrepresenting the crimes or their effects in the society. The perception of crimes is largely influenced by the social and news media on which the public is extremely dependent. Section 4: This section of the study focuses on an understanding of the positivist approach in explanation of crimes. The strengths and weaknesses of the approach will be discussed. Positivist Approach in Explanation of Crimes: The positivist approach is broadly based on the “articulation of general laws” in explanation of crimes (Keat and Urry 2011). According to the positivists, “the social world (as the natural world) is made up of facts which can be studied like the natural world” (Positivism –v- Interpretivism n.d.). Thus logic and methods of natural sciences are used by researchers to determine the causes and nature of social behavior and the study of the society is obtained based on the use of scientific principles (Positivism –v- Interpretivism n.d.). The positivist approach in explanation of crimes involves focusing on explaining occurrence of crimes and their effects based on evidences. This approach had developed since the nineteenth century with the increasing knowledge of science and “adoption of scientific method” (Paterson and Pollock 2011). During the 1870s this approach dominated the world in explanation of crimes and criminal behaviors. Earlier the explanations were based on the “physical differences between criminals and non-criminals” (Paterson and Pollock 2011). Later however the approach developed during the 1930s and later where such explanations were based on the “psychodynamic explanations of crime” (Paterson and Pollock 2011). Since the inception of the approach during the nineteenth century, researchers have focused much of their studies on the explanation of crimes on positivism with trying to deduce the nature and cause of crimes from the available data and comprehend them to get the desired results. The approach in particular tries to “attempt to explain deviant behavior through notions of cause and effect – that is, the interplay of internal (physiological and/or psychological deficiencies) and/or external (encompassing a variety of community effects) forces, factors, or variables that produce deviant behavior” (Cullen and Wilcox 2010). The approach has been highly successful in the world of crime and has been extensively used by the researchers for explanation of crimes (Cullen and Wilcox 2010). Thus from the above facts, the strengths of the approach could be realized. However, certain weaknesses are also associated with the approach. This is primarily due to the fact that there are two different aspects of this approach concerned by the researchers. While one set of researchers are focused on the social causes and effects of crime; another set of researchers are concerned with the psychological factors leading to and causing effects of crimes. Thus differences in opinions arise that affect the explanation of crimes considering this approach (Jones 2013). Thus it can be concluded from this section of the study that the positivist approach has been highly effective, with certain weaknesses though, in explanation of crimes, by researchers considering the positive effects of scientific principles in explanation of crimes. Conclusion: It could be obtained from the study that crime and its explanations have several aspects that include understanding its concept, its construction in the minds of the public through the significant role played by the media and also the approaches used by researchers to explain the causes and effects of crimes. References Chan, A.K.P. and V.M.S. Chan (2012) Public Perception of Crime and Attitudes toward Police: Examining the Effects of Media News. Discovery – SS Student E-Journal, Vol.1, pp.215-237. Crime, Offenders and Victims (n.d.) Jblearning. [Online]. Available at: http://www.jblearning.com/samples/0763742848/Exploring%20Criminal%20Justice-Ch%203.pdf [Accessed 6 November 2013]. Cullen, F.T. and P. Wilcox (2010) Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory, Volume 1. London: SAGE. Gerber, J. and E.L. Jensen (2007) Encyclopedia of White-collar Crime. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. Greer, C. (n.d.) News Media, Victims and Crime. Sagepub. [Online]. 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