Crime and its types
Crime is an act that is contrary to the laws and the legal codes. There are many types of crimes such as crime against persons, crime against property, crimes against morality, organized crimes and the white collar crimes (Gaines & Miller, 2012). However, every crime is associated with different demographic profiles and the sociological perspective. Crimes against person that are also known as the personal crimes involve rape, murder, and robbery etc. such crimes are distributed unevenly in society with poor, young, urban and the racial minorities involved in these crimes. Crimes against poverty include property theft without any harm to person, it also involves arson and theft etc. crimes against morality are also known as victimless crimes as there is no victim or complainant in these crimes. Examples of such type of crimes are gambling, prostitution, and use of illegal drugs.
White collar crimes are those crimes that are committed by the high status people of society, in the context of their profession. Examples of such type of crime are embezzling, tax evasion, violation of the income tax laws, and insider trading. Such crimes, however, generate less unrest in the mind of public as compared to the other crimes. But, they exert their impact on the society. Further, such crimes are generally less considered and are not investigated to a greater extent. Organized crimes are committed by the structural groups and it involves distribution of the illegal goods and services (Gaines & Miller, 2012). A major sociological concept in this regard is that the organized crimes are the industries that are organized along the similar lines as the legitimate businesses and they take the form of a corporate. Additionally, they are generally senior partners that control the profits of business, the workers that manage the work for progress of business, and finally the clients who prefer to buy the products and service that business offer to them.
Three Sociological Perspectives and Crime
People commit crimes because of depression, hate, and pressure from peers, greed, influences, boredom or the loneliness. Further, three sociological perspectives i.e., Functionalists, Conflict theorists, and Interactionalism perspectives can be considered in order to know the reasons of crime.
Functionalist Perspective
Durkheim, a renowned functionalist has considered that crime is inevitable in the society, because everyone is not able to follow the collective responses and sentiments of the society, some people will deviate from the beliefs and norms. So, Durkheim has explained that certain amount of the crimes is normal, and they are vital part of all the healthy societies. This is due to the fact that it performs as a safety valve in order to provide a safe way for someone for expressing their discontent. Such as, Cohen describes that the prostitution act as safety valve without posing any threat to the institution of family, which is due to the fact that he considers that crime of the prostitution can relieve the depression and stress in a distinct way without causing any damage to the life of other clients (Thio, 1997).
In words of Clinard, crime act as a warning device, because crime reflects that there is an aspect of the society that is not functioning properly. Hence, crime draws the attention towards the problem prevailing in the society that can then be solved. In view of Durkheim, the crime in the society is not produced genetically; rather it occurs naturally in the society (Lunden, 1958). Furthermore, he has not said that too many crimes are dangerous for the society; this idea is, however, developed by Merton.
In order to describe crime, Merton has used a term anomie in order to explain the condition of destabilized cultural regulations associated with the behavior. The functionalists consider that anomie is developed when people are frustrated in pursue of the goals prescribed by culture. According to Merton, everyone is happy in the balanced society, but, the American Society is not balanced (Cao, 2004). When the people try to live considering the social values and norms, then they find several ways in order to achieve success, and in this achievement they perform actions without considering norms. Merton has called this as a strain to the anomie, and in this behavior, in which no norms are considered pave the way to the crimes on the society.
Further, Merton has described five ways in which the American society can respond to the strain to anomie. The five ways include conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion (Deflem, 2006). According to Merton, the members of the society conform to societal norms, and they try to get success via normal means such as hard work in the school etc. He has elaborated innovation aspect in a way that the individuals who feel that they are not able to achieve success via the normal methods will try other ways in order to make money that lead to the life of crime.
Considering ritualism, individuals who feel that they are unable to achieve because of fewer available jobs, and think that they cannot turn to the innovative aspect may lower their aspiration and goals, this also pave the way to crimes as they have rejected the norms and values of the society by making their own goals having low aims. Merton described retreatism in a way that the individuals in society who cannot achieve success and they consider that there is no way to achieve, retreat from the society, or are drop out. However, they accept failure and usually turn to the drugs and alcohol. Furthermore, rebellion describes those people that are unable to achieve success, but they do not want to admit their defeat, and try to form their own goals as well as means in the society.
Conflict Theory Perspective
The Conflict Theory considers that society is a struggle for the dominance among the competing groups in the society such as classes, races, religions and genders etc (Einstadter, 2006). Further, when conflict theorists have seen the social domination i.e., the dominant groups are enjoying and exercising authority, power, and coercion on the subordinate groups. According to the perspective of conflict theory, the powerful members of the dominant groups are creating the rules for opportunity and success in the society, and are denying the success and opportunities of the subordinate groups, which is representing the fact that the authoritative and powerful, however, continue to monopolize their power, authority and privilege.
Most of the conflict theorists oppose such kind of coercion, and favor social order as well as equality in the society. Additionally, some such as Marx also support a complete socioeconomic revolution to the socialism, and others are reformist, and some do not consider that capitalistic system is the cause of crimes as this system paves the way to the class inequality, racial conflicts, and gender discrimination, without considering socialism. However, most of the conflict theorists consider capitalism as the major source of the social inequalities.
According to the conflict perspective, the major cause of the social problems such as crime is the oppression and exploitation of the subordinate groups by the dominating individuals. However, the Conflict theorists generally consider inequality and oppression as wrong, compared t o the Functionalists who consider it necessary for the integration and smooth running of the society. Further, the Conflict theory is of the view that social change is continuous, rapid, and inevitable because the groups try to replace each other in the social hierarchy.
Moreover, Marx’s Communist Manifesto is that Capitalism paves the way to inequality and oppression in the society (Azam, 1998). Capitalism, however, produces two groups in the society, which are Bourgeoisie who have all the owners of all the means of production, and the Proletariat the workers that sell their labors in order to earn wages. Due to the need and requirement of the accumulation of the capital, the Bourgeoisie remain competitive, and they exploit the workers, since the workers are exploited, they become a commodity, and according to Marx being a commodity or product they are utilized for the purpose of exchange, the worker sell his labor, and when they become frustrated with the dominating power, they become involve in the criminal activities. According to Marx, Society is continuously moving towards the utopia of communists.
Symbolic Interactionism Perspective
According to the Symbolic Interactionism society is a social construct; it is socially defined by the people who are acting together in the form of social groups having several possible realities, and depending on who they associate with. According to the Interactionalists, the patterns associated with the criminality are the consequence of the social interactions. People learn criminal activities and behavior when they interact with others, majorly with the close personal groups. They learn different techniques, rationalization, and attitudes, furthermore, whenever, the drives and the motives of the person are non-criminal or criminal, it is a function of defined legal codes that are defined by the surroundings of that individual in a way that is good for their observance or to the disobedience. An individual becomes a criminal, in the case he associate the results with the situations that are feasible to the violation of law. The influence of such association is, however, a function of the intensity, priority, duration, and frequency in one direction or the other. Further, the interactionists are of the view that the deviant behaviors such as crimes are the process of relativity, instead of absoluteness.
According to Becker, an interactionalist, the social groups pave the way to the criminal behaviors by making rules whose violation comprise of deviance, and with the application of those rules to a specific situation, labeling them as the deviant acts (Herman, 1995). Further, the labeling theory in this regard argues that the individuals become deviant and commit crimes due to imposition of identity upon them, and the adoption of the identity. Additionally, according to the Differential Association Theory, the interactionists are also of the view that the individuals learn to commit the crimes in the same manner as they learn many other behaviors having an exposure of different values and attitudes. The interactionists do not consider that the law breakers are different from the law abiders; they are of the view that some people commit crime because they are caught and disgraced for it. The symbolic interactions have, however, moved the emphasis from the macro-structures of the society to the micro-interactions.
Conclusion
Crime is an action that is not acceptable by the society since it is opposed to the legal rules and regulation of the society, there are several types of crimes and each sociological perspectives has its own view about the crime. In order to control the crime in the society necessary measures should be taken by the government, law enforcing bodies, and the individuals themselves. In this regard, sevicelearning mechanism is effective, as it allows understanding about the prevailing social problems, and creating awareness about the problems and evils of society (Baker & Dolgon, 2011). Furthermore, criminal justice mechanism should be made efficient so that the poor can get rid of the dominance of authoritative individuals, and can live the live freely according to their own values and customs. The law should be such that it promotes equality for rich as well as for poor. The society’s law should promote justice in a way wealth is not accumulated in the few hands; it should be allocated in a way that the poor are not deprived of the basic necessities of life. It will also help to control the crimes as people will not follow the criminal acts of other, and will not learn such deviant behaviors that will compel them towards criminal activities. this will help in the smooth functioning of the society, ensuring a peaceful place to live for all the individuals.
References
Azam, Kousar Jabeen. (1998). Federalism and Good Governance: Issues Across Cultures. South Asian Publishers
Cao, Liqun. (2004). Is American Society More Anomic? ATest of Merton’s Theory withCross-National Data. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 28(1), 15-31
Herman, Nancy J. (1995). Deviance: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach. Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland
Gaines, Larry., & Miller, Roger. (2012). Criminal Justice in Action. Cengage Learning, Canada
Deflem, Mathieu. (2006). Sociological Theory and Criminological Research: Views from Europe and the United States. Emerald Group Publishing, The Netherlands
Lunden, Walter A. (1958). Pioneers in Criminology XVI--Emile Durkheim (1858-1917). Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 49(1), 2-9
Thio, Alex. (1997). Sociology: a brief introduction. Logman Publishing, England
Dolgon, Corey., & Baker, Chris. (2011). Social Problems: A Service Learning Approach. Sage Publications
Einstadter, Werner J. (2006). Criminological Theory: An Analysis of Its Underlying Assumptions. Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland
