Value of Criminology to Understand Violence - Research Paper Example

 Critical assessment of the value of criminology to the understanding of violence in relation to State practices [Name] [Course] [Professor’s name] [Date] One of the most obnoxious statures of world which is a pressing problem is that of the crimes of violence which varies among the different nations. The underlying meaning of the crimes and violence are very poorly understood and for that reason various theories have been exposited by various theorists. Keeping aside the topics of big democracy, aspirations of globally challenged competitive strategy etc. if we focus we can see that there has been an exponential growth of the global population escalating in their demand of basic needs and human rights without violence. The propensity of the serious problems of violence, daily conflict and insecurity is a much broader and wider concept as well as scattered in nature than the debilitating wars and uprisings in inter-regions, inter militias which results in the weakening of the nation states in the recent years (Davis, 2008, p.3). The paper will discuss the theoretical foundations related to the concept of criminology and its value in analyzing the perception of violence in relation to the state practices. Special emphasis will be provided on such practices with reference to the United Kingdom (UK). Dimensions of criminology There are mainly two pioneering ideas in criminology with the involvement in the crime are the individual crime propensity and criminogenic features of the environments. One of the leading theories which focus on the role of the individual differences is that of the Gottfredson and Hirschi’s self control theory and the other one which centers on the role of the influences of the environment is Cohen and Felson’s routine activity theory. The theorists and the researchers have dealt with both the dimensions of the importance of the integration of the individual and the approaches in the environmental dimensions for the spreading of the knowledge of the causation of crime (Wikström & Svensson, 2008, p. 311). Crime Propensity Crime propensity can be elucidated as the likelihood that an individual will be perceiving crime as an alternative of an action and acting upon that perception. The degree or intensity to which an individual will sense or perceive an act of crime as an action alternative is correlated with the ability of a person’s morality and ability for the exercise of the self control. The moral values and the emotions of a young person are significant because it influences the extent to which the person perceives the crime as an action alternative. The capability of a person to exercise his or her self control is significant because it directly influences the person’s capability to avoid actions which includes temptations and provocations for committing a criminal act. Several studies have been done and inferences have been drawn that the measures of morality and the measures of the ability to exercise self control are the predictors of the involvement of the individuals in crime and violence. Generally an index of an individual’s morality and ability to exercise self-control is one of the good indicators of the person’s crime propensity (Wikström & Svensson, 2008, p.312). Morality and self-control Morality is important because it centers on the kind of action alternatives that a person experiences as potential responses to a certain circumstance. The ability of a person’s self control is also highly significant as it depicts the way in which a person can direct his or action keeping in balance with the person’s morality at the time of experiencing temptations and provocations which stands in the way of conflict of the person’s own morality. The capability for the exercise of the self control generates and comes in the forefront when the motivation of a person comes in the conflict of the person’s morality (Wikström, n.d., p.254). Lifestyles A life style is generally defines as the preference of an individual for the active seeking out of some particular sets of activities and their related attributes which are involved in taking part with various kinds of particular settings of behavior. The particular type of life styles where the youth and the children spend a major amount of time informally socialize and are unsupervised by adults in a behavioral context where they express the violence of the norms without much interference from the others. These life styles are generally regarded as high risk life styles. In the kind of settings where the children and the youth socializes the unsupervised are typically street corners, playgrounds, parks, shopping malls and so on. In the adolescent this may include various settings of entertainment like pubs, bars and discos. The behavior settings which are generally unsupervised by the others, violations of the rule can take place without the risk of intervention and reaction from the others (Wikström & Svensson, 2008, p.313). Propensity in UK The records in 2007 showed that the population of the prisons in England and Wales has soared up by 85% since the year 1993. In January, 1993, the prison population of England was around 41,561 and rose to a level of around 77,774 in 2005 (Walker , 2006). One of the most significant factors for the enhanced crime propensity in UK can be attributed to the association with the rising unemployment rates. The economic choice theory stresses on the human capital influences like earnings, employment status quo. In England property crimes are more often committed in periods of joblessness (Bushway & Reuter, n.d.). Also attached with this is the effect of migration. Studies have revealed that the labor market opportunities are also good predictors of the criminal participation decisions. UK allows an immigration system which is in favor of the flow of the high skilled workers. And it has been encountered that the high skilled workers secures permanent employment as compared to their low earning counterparts and less prone to criminal activities. On the other hand the low earning laborers attached with the weaker labor markets are more prone to commit criminal activities (Bell & Machin, 2011, p.5). Routine Activity Theory The environmental influences driving the criminal behavior is often explained through the Routine Activity Theory. The theory has been developed by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson in the late 1970s. The theory is actually a extension of the rational choice theory. The underlying concept of the Rational Choice theory involves free will as the weapon for the commitment of criminal activities. The offender resorts in a strategic formulation in evaluating the risks, types of offenses committed the selection of the victims as well as the probabilities of apprehension. At a threshold point when the incentives of executing the crime is greater than the results of apprehension then it is likely to be case that the offender is likely to commit the criminal act. This can be viewed from a diagrammatic explanation below as: Fig.1 (Wilson, 2009, p.232) In the above diagram, the level of criminal act is taken on the horizontal axis and the apprehension and rewards are taken on the vertical axis. Now up to the level R the offender will not go beyond the crime level C as the opportunity cost of apprehension is greater than the rewards thus earned. But after the threshold level R, the criminal activity will be a positive function of the reward and the effect of apprehension will be nullified and the offender will be executing more crime with the increase in the reward levels. However this point of view has limitations and varies across different motivation levels of the offender. From the view point of Cohen and Felson, the crime and victimization stands upon three criteria. Firstly, a suitable target, secondly, absence of capable guardian and the lastly upon the motivated offender. In the first case, the suitable item may be a person or an object and the offenders usually target the victims on the basis of their vulnerability. For the victim selection determination, the offender will be analyzing the location, habits, behaviors, lifestyles, living conditions as well as the social interactions of the victims. As for example, a burglar with the intention of burglarizing a home will select that particular home, which will provide the burglar an easy access, utility maximizing valuables as well as minimal chances for apprehension. The offender will conjecture upon the home owner’s daily routine, measurement of security adapted. In the group of capable guardians fall those people who act as a deterrence mechanism against the criminal activities. The people generally include the concerned neighbors, watchful parents, patrol officers and so on. The degree of victimization is more pronounced in the absence of the absence or in the reluctant behavior of the capable guardians. The motivation of the offender also varies in degrees in the execution of the criminal activities. As for example, a burglar may be motivated by the utter excitement of the execution while others in need of money for supporting drug addiction and in this case, the a “nothing to lose” mechanism usually play in the mind of the offender and the rewards or the incentive received usually exceeds the uncertain consequences of apprehension. For the prevention of such activities there has to be an influx of awareness of the environment and optimally formulating plans for debarring oneself from the victimization phenomenon (Burke, 2009, p.233). Feminist theories of violence The domain of feminist criminology has ushered from the phase of 1970s and has emerged as robust theoretical orientations. Solid acclamation bestows upon the contemporary feminist criminologists as well as the early period feminist criminologists whose contributions are immense. Firstly the several concept of feminism will be discussed and then the focus will be shifted on the aspect of domestic violence with a special emphasis on UK. The liberal feminism stresses on the point of discrimination that the role of men carries more social status than the women. The liberal feminists emphasizes on the establishment of the equality of men and women in the spheres of politics, social status, legal status and economic status as well. Within the purview of criminology, the liberal feminists view the offending activities of the female as gender role socialization and the women basically offend at a lower rate than the men as they are facilitated with fewer opportunities to engage in deviance. The epistemological basis of feminism is that of experience. The feminist experience is generally achieved through the struggle against oppression (Muncie et al, 2003, p. 496). Patriarchy and male dominance is the root cause of the female oppression. The radical feminists focus on the manifestations of patriarchy in the crimes against women in the forms of domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment and pornography. In the area of Marxist feminism, the women are getting subordinated within the capitalist societies giving rise to the class and differentiated gender relations. The proponents theorize that the subordination of the women compels them in commitment of crime as a means of supporting themselves economically. The socialist feminist generally collaborates the radical and Marxist concepts of feminism and states the reason for the oppression of the women in the based on class inequalities. Under the purview of criminology the socialist feminists generally examines the reasons for crime within the domain of the gender and class based systems of power. The post modern feminism rejects the fixed categories and the universal concepts in favor of multiple truths as well as on the examination of the effects of discourse and the symbolic representation of the claims about the knowledge. In the domain of criminology, the post modern feminists focus on the concepts of crime, justice, deviance and challenge that accept the truths of criminology. There are also other branches of feminism like Black feminism and lesbian feminism. The former one deals with the subordination of the black by the white people. In this respect in an aspect of rape, Brown Miller stated: “Women have been raped by men…..for many of the same reasons that blacks were lynched by gangs of whites; as group punishment for being uppity, for getting out of line, for failing to recognize “one’s place”, for assuming sexual freedoms, of for behavior no more provocative than walking down the wrong road at night in the wrong part of town and presenting a convenient, isolated target” (Box, 1984, p.157). Lesbian feminism associates the oppression to the heterosexism and the control of men over the social space of the women. They argue that the massive technological advancement of the technology has led to the substitution of the men and without the help of the men reproduction takes place. The past decades have seen tremendous increase in the domestic violence and the research on the same has seen the experiences of the lesbian immigration (Proctor, 2006, pp. 30-31). Power control theory The power control theory is proposed by Hagan which is a sub class of the feminism theories defined so far. This theory concentrates on the patriarchal as well as the egalitarian families which are subject to examination. In the patriarchal families the sons are generally more likely than the daughters to be delinquent because the sons are receivers of less supervision than the daughters. In the egalitarian families, the delinquent behavior of the sons and the daughters tends to be more or less similar (See, n.d., p.38). Domestic violence and UK Domestic violence disputes are one of the most common types of violence encountered in and around every corners of the world. Domestic violence includes physical torture, mental torture, and financial torture of any kind. The sub categories of the domestic violence include parent abuse, child abuse, child sexual abuse, elder abuse, sibling violence and so on (Sampson, 2006). From the late 1990s the domestic violence has been a grave concern for the attraction of the greater government interaction and policy attention. Every year in the UK an estimated cost of the domestic violence amounts to around £ 23 billion. The issue of mental health especially high rates of self harming tendencies like suicide rates has increased within the Asian women and this has led to the research of specialist services throughout the years. The research in UK reveals that majorly the Asian women under the age of 30 have been subjected towards elevated rates of self harm and suicide rates. A study in West London showed that rates of the Asian women under the age of 30 had rates of self harm of around 2.5 times than that of the white women and that of 7 times than those of the Asian men. Shame has been a crucial factor in deciding for staying and leaving. The issue of honor killings has recently started with the clear implications for the lives of Asian women. Report also reveals that there have been 20 killings in the name of honor in the last five years through the help of forced marriages. Several scholars have argued that the killings are a little more than the murder of women (Thiara, 2005, pp. 5-6). The National Center for Domestic Violence (NCDV) is in the responsibility of providing free and fast emergency service to the survivors of domestic violence ignorant of the financial circumstances, race, gender or the sexual orientation (National Center for Domestic Violence, n.d.). Conclusion The theorization of violation has been a long drawn human psychological disorder cropped up from the realms of the core of human psychology and inflicted by various factors like environment and the circumstances which acts as the predictors of provocative drivers of execution of criminal acts. The paper concentrates on the nature of the violence associated with different theories of violence explained. The crime propensity has been found in the domain of a trade -off between the morality and self control. In the routine activity theory a positive relation between the incentives and criminal act has been shown. A significant amount of focus is entailed on the feminist theories have been described which results from the subordination by the men in the society and in turn creates female offenders. The domestic violence is an platform which is taken here with the backdrop of UK. Mass scale awareness and strict implementation of the rule will be required for neutralizing these activities. References 1. Burke, T (2009), Routine Activity Theory. In Janet K. Wilson (Ed.), The Praeger Handbook of Victimology, (pp. 232-233), Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, available at: < http://www.radford.edu/~tburke/Burke/Routine%20Activity%20Theory.pdf> (accessed on June 26, 2012) 2. Box, S (1984), Power, Crime, and Mystification, Routledge 3. Bell, B & Machin, S (2011), The Impact of Migration on Crime and Victimization, available at: (accessed on June 26, 2012) 4. Davis, D. E. (2008), Challenges of Violence and insecurity, Beyond the Democracy-Development Mantra, available at: < http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/files/Revista-Winter2007-08.pdf> (accessed on June 25, 2012) 5. Muncie et al, (2003), Criminological Perspectives: Essential Readings, SAGE 6. Proctor, A. B (2006), Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Crime Future Directions for Feminist Criminology, 1(1), pp. 27-47, available at < http://www.uk.sagepub.com/tibbettsess/study/articles/10/Burgess-Proctor.pdf> (accessed on June 26, 2012) 7. See, E. (n.d.), Criminological Theories: Introduction, Evaluation, and Applications, available at: < http://roxbury.net/images/pdfs/ct4ssg.pdf> (accessed on June 26, 2012) 8. Sampson, R (2006), Domestic Violence, available at: < http://www.popcenter.org/problems/domestic_violence/print/> (accessed on June 26, 2012) 9. 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