Analysis of Chapter Deven of The Irony of State Intervention - Essay Example

Summary: Chapter Seven In chapter seven “The Irony of Intervention,” the explores people’s perception concerning the criminal justice system, in relation to labeling theorist. Ideally, the mainstream belief is that law was made to apprehend and punish criminals through any possible means. On the other hand, labeling theorists argues that the criminal justice system promotes establishment of criminal behaviors in certain fronts. For example, more than 58% of African American males aged between 20 and 29 years are either in prison or under the control of the justice system (Lilly, Cullen, and Ball 140).

Despite this restriction, others are being initiated into criminality. Before the development of labeling theory, crime was defined as a behavior that violates the law. This definition made criminologists to approach criminology and causes of crime from a social perspective. Labeling theory starts by disregarding the idea or the connection between crime and behaviors. The theorists argued that through the “labeling” act, the severity of a crime is not based on the harm that it causes but on the criminal label bestowed on it (Lilly, Cullen, and Ball 141).

This indicates that the labeling system does not eliminate criminals from the street but it leads to the development of new offenders. According to the labeling theorist, imprisonment does not eliminate offenders from the street but it creates opportunity for others. Indeed, the theory complies with the choice theory, which argues that criminals commit crime after weighing the expected benefits and risks. However, the compliance does not rule out existence fear among offenders concerning imprisonment.

Indeed, the connection between labeling and choice theories is that most punishments are not equivalent to crimes.The “irony of state intervention” thesis as explained in the text, complies with most day-to-day crime intervention activity. However, the thesis lacks empirical supports making it to remain a casual thesis. Consequently, the implications of this thesis are evident in the sense that the criminal justice systems may lead to the creation of more criminals. Recent research on state intervention vs.

criminality shows that certain measures that the state use to control crime do not yield much benefit. For instance, imprisonment has been known to contribute to the development of a criminal’s careers. For instance, most ex-prisoners end up into criminal activities after being released from prison. The theorists argue that state interventions lead to the hardening of criminals rather than incapacitation. Labeling theory contradicts state’s intervention policy and programs. Indeed, the crime problem cannot be solved by widening the criminal law and the prison population, as hypothesized by the current criminal justice system.

The last chapter of the book looks into crime and criminal behavior through the integrated theory concept. In this chapter, the author asserts that none of the criminology theory that can exist in isolation. The author claims that criminology theories can be integrated into one universal theory. In this approach, the labeling theory lacks sufficiency in explaining criminal minds. Indeed, the theory deviates from some crucial ideas or theories of criminology. However, the integration theory does not nullify the credibility of fundamental criminology theories.

Works CitedLilly, Robert Cullen, Francis and Ball, Richard. Criminological Theory: Context and Consequences, Fifth Edition. New York: SAGE Publications, 2010. Print.