The Theoretical Framework of Crime in the Present Day Sociology - Term Paper Example

Crimes and deviance from the norms of human society is a complex phenomenon. It is argued in this essay that none of the sociological theory deals with the issue of crimes and deviance in a comprehensive and holistic manner. The main argument is that all the four theories explaining crime look at the crime as deviance as a process and not as a situation. Therefore the solution of the situation at immediate sociological grounds is a missing link in the theoretical framework of crime in the present day sociology. The delinquent behavior of individuals and groups has been studied in sociology since the times when sociology had not taken birth from the womb of philosophy. Modern sociology has given different explanations and created numerous theoretical paradigms to deal with the issue of deviance and crime in human society. This essay is intended at dealing with the issue of crime and deviance in the society from social criminological point of view. Various prominent debates on crime’s sociological theories are discussed at length. Various aspects of crime and deviant behavior with elaborate examples make part of this essay. A comparison of the key sociologists on functionalism, interactionism, conflict and control theories on deviance and crime has been identified. Their contributions towards the understanding of deviance and crime in society have been given. It has been proved that the entire four theorists have looked at one or the other aspect of the issue and solution of the issue has always remained unresolved. Although Crime is defined as an action of an individual or a group of individuals that tends at contravening the established laws of a political authority in a society, yet, there are a very few people, who may, in their whole life have not broken in one or the other way the rules formulated by society. Generally, criminals are those deviants who refuse to live by the rules of the society that majority of population expect them to follow. In today’s society terrorists all over the world are known as the biggest criminals. Drug traffickers and computer hackers are also known as the dangerous criminals. Some petty thefts like shop lifting and public drunkenness and prostitution are typical female crimes (Flowers 1987 p34). However, crimes against women are 1000% more than men (Guardian 18th February 2000). Kevinmitnick a Californian computer hacker is known to have hacked the biggest number of computers in the world. There are also criminologists like Italian Cesare Lombroso, 1870, in Giddens 2001.p 215), who believe that criminal type people have special anatomical features. The psychologists explain crimes in the perspective of psychopathology as moral degeneration (Hans Evseneck, 1964 p67). There are different sociological approaches like Functionalists, Inter-actionists, Conflict and Control theories that explain the crimes and criminal behaviors. They are all engaged in this essay one by one as pitched against each other. Emile Durkhiem, a functionalist theorist has seen crime and deviance as a social factor and believes that the criminals and deviant people are necessary and functional elements in modern society. Criminals are less constrained in the modern societies than the traditional ones. Since it is not possible for any society to be in complete census about the norms, values and rules that govern it (Kelling and Coles 1997.p 56). There is always a bigger space for the deviant individuals in the modern world leaving a bigger room for the nonconformists. In this perspective Tamil Tigers (a terrorist organization in Tamil Nado province of Sri Lanka) consider their violent behavior as normal in their own ideology. Durkhiem further explains that deviance also performs an adaptive function. It brings about new ideas and challenges to the society. Therefore, it is an innovative force, paving way for a change in the society. The other function of deviance is to promote a delineating border between a good and bad behavior in the society. Since the criminal events bring about the collective responses and group solidarity amongst the normal people in the society. Hence, it is again useful. In this perspective, it can be seen that the events of 9/11 brought about solidarity, not only amongst the American people but also in the whole Western world and a unity of action was observed in the US led NATO forces against terrorists in the whole world. In this perspective crime is functional and useful for society. Conflict theorist say exactly opposite of functionalists. And they justify crime as a matter of social difference. The conflict theory of explains the crime phenomenon with the premise that no behavior is criminal in itself. The social behaviors are defined as normal or criminal on the basis of the economic interests of the people that control the legal and political system in the society. The conflict theorists point out that the criminal law gives the hard punishments for those downtrodden people of the society. Crimes are usually committed by disadvantageous group of the society. For example a poor man stealing 10 Dollars shirt from a super store gets bigger punishment than a Chief Executive of a company who commits a bigger fraud with his employees. The conflict situation in the punishments is due to the reason that both criminals belong to different classes of society. Therefore, the conflicts theorists view the criminal justice system in the context of economic system. Since the dominant class writes the rules and laws and influences their enforcement, so they get the economic advantages from such system. The criminal sentences protect the properties of owners from the robbery and treat the upper classes with lenient sentences. Different types of punishments are present for different types of behavior and regarded differently from criminal point of view. In a capitalist society law is written to protect the private property. Karl Marx is the famous conflict theorist who explains the reasons of conflict in the society that result into deviant behavior and resulting crimes. The proletariats are in the possession of all the resources of society and bourgeois are the poor laborers who sell their labor for earning bread. Both the classes are bent upon committing crimes against each other. Today’s exploitation of poor people by the rich society can be well explained by the Marx conflict theory. The famous control theorists Travis Hirchi in his treatise on “The Causes of Delinquency “(1969.p 19), has claimed that there are four types of links of the people to the societal norms. These are attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. The delinquency and deviance results whenever these links are weak (Gottferdson 1990 p90). Inadequate socialization at home, in peers or at school also weakens the social control over individuals. Some other control theorists believe that the crime is an outcome of the increase number of opportunities for crime in modern society. With the growth of wealth in the society, the residential homes become victims of motivated offenders. In this connection target hardening of victims is the central idea. Stuart Hall (1978 p103) said that his colleagues argued that the muggings were encouraged in Britain in 1970s by the state and the media in order to deflect the attention of people from unemployment and low wages in the country. While saying so, Stuart referred to the social disparities that needed to be eliminated from society for the prevention of crime. On the other hand when we see at interactionis theorists, they see at criminals as the intentional or unintentional associates to each other. Interactions theorists study the crime by looking at a behavior that is evolved through interaction by the members of a group. In this perspective crime is collectively defined as a behavior that produces as actual harm or symbolic trouble to the members of a group. In case of a rime the rules of behavior are those laws that define certain acts as punishable (Richard Erickson 1999p.78) The integrationists also study the relationship between criminals and their victims and also between police and suspects. For instance, a study of murder can reveal that the victim has also contributed to the death by using a force or threatening the murderer in a symbolic way such as insults or obscene gestures (Lucken Bill 1977.p87). Studies at police behavior often reveal that the police officers depend on the demeanor and verbal communications to determine whether they should arrest or suspect a person or let him go off .While giving the perspective of interactionist theories Edwin H Sutherland in 1949 has advanced an idea that the crime is actually a differential association. It means that people become delinquent while associating with criminal people. Whereas, the Labeling theorists like Edwin Lemert in 1972, said that a set of characteristics of individual or groups become deviant as a process of interaction between deviant and non deviant people. Howard Becker (1963.p56), deviant behavior is a behavior that so labels the people. According to him deviant behavior is not the determinant factor for becoming the criminal. He found that becoming an addict of Marijuana depended on close association of non users with the users. Edwin Lemert proved that normally people with deviant behavior get away with it. Therefore it can be concluded that crime is a product of deprivation or social disorganization. Therefore, from theoretical perspective it can be concluded that crime can not explained by single theory that can account for different criminal conducts in the society. When compared with each other all the crime theorists are looking at one or the other aspect of crime as a social process. Crime has not been seen so far together as a process and a situation in sociology. This question needs further research and continued efforts for finding the sustainable localized solutions of crimes and deviance. References 1-Flowers, Ronald Barrie, 1987; Women and Criminality; the woman as victim; offender and practitioners; New York; Green Wood Press 2- Erickson, Richard and Kevin Haggerty. 1999. Policing the risk society; oxford; Calderon. 3- Kalling George l. And Coles 1997. ; Fixing broken windows; restoring order and reducing crime in our communities. New York; Free Press 4-Gottfredson, Michael. R. and Travis Hirsch 1990; A general theory of crime Stanford, Cliff Stanford University Press 5- Becker Harvard 1963. Outsiders; studies in the sociology of deviance Newyork; Free press 6-lemert Edwin 1972; Human deviance, social problems and social control. Englewood cliffs New Jersey Prentice Hall 7- Hall Stuart et.al. 1978; “Policing the crisis; mugging, the state, and law and order London, Macmillan 8- Giddens, Anthony; Sociology. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford 2001. 9- Guardian 18th February 2000 10- Durkhiem, Emile. 1984; the division of labor in society, London Macmillan 11- The original lectures of Karl Marx published by him in neue rheinishe zeitung a German language magazine December 1847 12- Evseneck, Hans 1964. Crime and personality London; Rutledge Read More