Deviance and Crime Issues - Essay Example

Deviance and Crime Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Reason as to why crime persists with a formal penal system in place Despite the effort being put in place to deal with crime in society to ensure that there is law and order, it has never been easy for law enforcers. This is because the society is structured in such away that it creates the environment that facilitates crime. Crime according to Braithwaite and Drahos (2002) is the process of violating the existing criminal laws that have been enacted by the state or the authority or the federal government. Norms can be described as the culture or value that the majority of the people in the society consider right. What is emerging as a big challenge in many parts of the world is how social deviance is influencing on the process of ensuring law and order as well justice are administered to the full by the various agencies (Smith and Natalier 2005). Crime can exist in two broad categories namely as an act and as failure by the offender to adhere to the existing laws. The purpose of this essay is to review why even though formal penal systems do exist, there still continues to be increase in crime. Corruption is one the major crimes that have been identified and that have continued to persist in the society despite the existing of the formal penal systems in the country. According to James and Warren (2009) police corruption, abuse of power and brutality is rampant in police force. Often corrupt police use their powers for personal gains. It is also a fact that there is a ‘police code’, which is set by corrupt police, which demands loyalty within the police force. Nationally and globally, the police is expected to ensure lawful and orderliness. However, the police officers often compromise its duty to the society and thereby fail to fight crime in society, as it ought to be. Corruption is widespread crime and not only common in the police force but also in other sectors in particular the commercial sectors where individuals may engage in giving bribes to win some favours like getting tenders and avoid being victimized for their unethical activities. With this regard, a combination of failed police systems and escalation of corrupt deals in the police services widely contribute to persistence in crime as no one is perfect to hold another person responsible. In New Zealand and Australia, the Bikie Gangs are known to be involved in criminal activities while the politicians continue to play partisan role in their campaign suggesting how it would always be difficult to eradicate them if elected to parliament. The purpose of embracing the bikie gangs is to ensure that the politicians have their ways in the media publicity as much as possible (Morgan and Dagistanli 2010). Furthermore, the other reasons that this type of criminal gangs have continued to exist, is to take control and to instil fear to those who are opposed to their ideas so that they can vote for their preferred candidates to avoid any victimisation and attack. Despite the existence of different laws to punish crimes, the perceptions different people hold towards certain practices has remained a big challenge especially when it comes to determining whether it is a crime to behave in a certain way or not. Take the cases of homosexuality, masturbation and organism among women. It is emerging that even though some communities or states may prohibit some or all of these practices, the neighbouring societies may be allowing them. In the case of Siwans in the Nothern parts of Africa, in almost one century ago, homosexual was considered normal practice while in the case of the Rwala Bedouins, homosexuality was considered abnormal by the society. On the other hand, while during the Victorian times orgasm among women was considered a sign of abnormality, today, the situation is quite different, without orgasm, a woman is considered to be abnormal. While the law criminalizes such practices as homosexuality and masturbation, the trends in society are changing and what was considered criminal yesterday is not criminal today. For example even though masturbation is criminalized in the United States for example but being supported health practitioners as a health practice, homosexuality is considered a normal practice both by the law and the religious groups. These scenarios can be explained in the context of deviance in the society whereby one society may be seeing another society’s practice as a wrong and vise versa. In an actual sense what this implies is that while there are different practices in the society, there may be no wrong or right practice, what matters is the view of the society on a particular practice or behaviour (Fulcher and Scott 2006). What this does to the penal code is that despite criminalizing some practices such as masturbation it could be very difficult to eliminate it completely since some quotas such as health professionals propose it as a healthy practice and consequently increased resistance to the penal laws on the practice. Patricia & Peter (2006) used the cyber crime to demonstrate how crime has now moved from the actual contexts in the streets to the cyberspace. This is can involve people who are deeply in crime and are actually satisfied with their activities and who make it their career to earn money by dubious means. Actually, criminal activities like drug trafficking, mugging, extortion, gambling and even smoking are given a new look, as those who practice and who made them part of their career are becoming professionals and cannot easily be detected. The other social aspect that has also contributed to the increase in crime in the society despite the existence of penal codes is the perceptions that the society has that some crimes are committed by given groups only like gender, ethnic or class as their norms (Fulcher and Scott 2006). For instance, the public perception is that such crimes as robbery, rape, burglary, theft and violence as well as mugging are crimes committed by male. In other words the society seems to have confirmed the existence of these crimes among male gender in the society. However, this is not the trend any more as female counterparts are now deviating from the norms and are becoming experts in these crimes. For example, according to the independent report of June 5th 2005, it reported that preferences of drug related crimes committed by female had increased from 1.2% in 2000 to reaching about 10.1% in 2005 (Smith and Natalier 2005). The similar trends were recorded in other criminal activities like theft, robbery, burglary and criminal damage. In the contemporary society, all these crimes have continued to persist despite having the penal codes in place. This is because, the codes are structured in such away and informed that many of these crimes are committed by male and therefore putting less emphasis on crimes committed by female gender thus creating a loophole for the crimes previously committed by male gender to be perfected by female gender. As suggested by Smith and Natalier (2005), even though statistics about crime do exist, it still becomes very difficult to locate all crimes. This is because of the nature of crimes and the context in which they are committed. Like is the case of the Police systems, they do not record all crimes while crimes such as rape and domestic violence are often not reported. In this case, the law does not get the chance to deal with all crimes committed in the society. A study by Fulcher and Scott (2006) on the policy on crime and in particular the zero tolerance, naming and shaming and the judicial systems at large, showed that this may contribute to some of the criminal activities in the society as this is not compatible for all crimes. For example employing the zero tolerance approach to a minor crime like smoking may turn out to be more stigmatizing to the individual involved. The problem with this system of dealing with crime has demonstrated some failures. First, it is not effective in making people feel ashamed of their wrongful actions. On the other hand, there are those people considered to be powerful in the society like is the case of politicians who cannot be ashamed of their deeds. This is because stigmatisation may work well with some crimes while in others it cannot. For instance, drug dealers continue to sell drugs and although zero tolerance has been used to stop the trade it still continues and both dealers and their customer risk criminal prosecution. Further, the structure in respect to dealing with drugs through zero tolerance and naming and shaming despite playing a major role in reducing massive drug trafficking globally, it is notable that the involved victims and pharmaceuticals are engaged in worldwide links where naming and shaming cannot be directed to one particular individual. Further, deviation from professional ethics and practice by medical doctors by prescribing illegal drugs to innocent patients has been a major challenge in dealing with drug-trafficking crime as many of those doctors who engage in this crime operate under large pharmaceutical companies. Even though there are various penal codes to deal with crime in the society, the judicial systems are structured in such away that they cannot easily be subjected to reviews (Smith and Natalier 2005) so as to deal effectively with new and emerging crimes. This kind of scenario is a hindrance to the fight against crimes since successful punishing of crimes is depended on the willingness of the prosecutor to pursue the case and also the police to provide the required evidence (Smith and Natalier 2005). The court is a place where criminals are convicted and justice prevails for the victims. However, it is not often easy to pursue a criminal case especially if the prosecutor believes that they cannot obtain a conviction due to lack of strong evidence. According to Smith and Natalier (2005) sometimes deals are made to reduce the sentence with the criminals or sometimes-organizational relationships may take preference due to bureaucracy or political convenience. This can result in criminals getting away with serious offenses. Given the increase in crime cases presented in court, the issue of pleas and guilty have come to be a very big challenge in dealing with modern crimes. This is because it is believed that by accepting pleas, the courts are compromising the criminals by giving lesser sentences in order to reduce the number of cases. This is happening even though there are national and administrative requirements to follow all bureaucracies in providing justice. On the other hand, women in the society for long have been seen to be discriminated by the law which considers them as people who should not be actively involved in community activities. In many societies, this notion has led women to be considered instruments for making wives. This is because of the sexist ideas. What this perception has caused in the society is the increasing concerns about the rightful position of women sexist in the society. Because some do believe that some of their rights and privileges and rights have been denied and they are now engaged in any activity including criminal so as to regain their position in society. The legal system has actually failed to protect women for what can be termed as cultural beliefs something that has led women to engage in such crimes as drug-trafficking and prostitution (Morgan and Dagistanli 2010). Finally, corporate crime is also on the increase despite the existence of penal laws. The reason for this is because many of the corporate directors and owners are covered under the corporate veil. Under the corporate veil, the identities of key players are hidden and unless the order by the court to lift the veil, then some of the corporate criminals may continue escaping. Conclusion Crime in the modern society despite the existence of the formal penal formal systems has continued to persist and this to a big extent is attributable to deviance of what is considered a norm by the larger society. Various crimes as corruption in the police service and the prevailing cultural structure have been a major hindrance to dealing with crime in the society. This is because this character allows such criminal activities like drug trafficking, theft, burglary and robbery to happen. Finally, perception that some crimes are associated to certain groups like gender, class and ethnicity has been a major obstacle in dealing with the menace as there is a lot of deviant to some norms taking place because much concentration is put on view individuals. References Braithwaite, J. and Drahos P (2002). Zero Tolerance, Naming and Shaming: Is There a Case for it with Crimes of the Powerful? Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 35, p. 269-288. Fulcher and Scott. 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