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Introduction
Criminal offenses have social underpinnings. One who commits a particular crime may know that his act is against the law, but several social factors may have led him to push through. Given that criminal acts happen in almost every setting where humans thrive, it is essential to examine the subject matter more closely for one to understand it better. Understanding crime paves way for its prevention in the form of socially held mechanisms such as upbringing and law enforcement, on one hand, and self-help procedures, on the other.
Given the aforementioned concern, this study focuses on providing a theoretical perspective to three types of crime – murder, rape and robbery. This study recognizes murder, rape and robbery as among the most prevalent types of crime in society; control theory explains murder, labeling theory elaborates rape and conflict theory portray robbery. A perusal of published literature provides authority to the explanation of each crime with their respective theories, strengthening the primary assumption that influential social manifestations enable people to commit crimes.
Murder Vis-à-vis Control Theory
Murder is a crime committed by a person who kills another person as part of his premeditated plan. A person has the strong tendency to commit murder if he holds a grudge against another person or if he carries on the act based on the instructions of another person. Verily, the murderer, being the one who commits murder, is not the only person who carries the liability for his act. Accomplices and accessories have the responsibility to answer murder charges should their association with the murderer and his act becomes established in court. The grave nature of murder centers on the fact that the loss of the life of a person brings grave emotional damages to his family members and other people close to him. The invaluable nature of human life lies to the extent that it is irreplaceable; thus, murder stands as a serious crime with notable strong punishments under laws in several nations since it causes the destruction of human life (Morrall 12-45).
Murder usually entails punishments that could be among the heaviest provided by laws under different nations. Despite of the harsh consequences provided by law to murderers and the devastating effects of murder, the crime continues to prevail at present. Several societies have organized against offenses that would entail the destruction of human life. Yet, human fallibility stands as the main cause behind persons committing murder, subject to various social influences. Lack of concern for human life has remarkable basis on a series of exclusionary behavior and anathema against other people due to poor upbringing (Morrall 46-123).
A person becomes a murderer mainly because of his lack of exposure to mechanisms that would make him realize the value of human life and life, in general. The control theory in sociology, highly fitting in the context of analyzing murder, states that a person that shares more positive bonds with his family or peers in any given social setting is less likely to commit any kind of deviant behavior. Otherwise, a person who has more exposure to negative social interaction is more susceptible to deviancy. Deviant behavior triggers a person to do acts normally unacceptable or harmful to society. Those who possess deviant behavior hold grudges against society and hold cynical views against any form of social organization. Therefore, deviant people have greater tendency to commit crimes – acts that deliberately violate the social organization of the rule of law. Deviant people whose thoughts are undaunted by any conscientious thoughts favoring the value of human life have the greater tendency to commit murder, as they prioritize their cynical views against society over thinking of the common good of the people (Morrall 124-190).
Killing a person requires a strong sentiment towards values rejecting the importance of human life. People who undergo favorable conditions in terms of upbringing and social connections tend to be less cynical towards society and have more attachments to the valuable benefits human life gives them. Favorable upbringing by parents and harmonious relations with peers in various social settings tend to being people closer to the value of human life, given that those positive manifestations have the strong tendency to teach them not to hurt other people in any way. However, people who possess deviant attitudes have the greater leniency towards seeing no substantial value in human life. Those who have suffered abusive upbringing from parents and unsavory relations with other people have greater exposure to negative characteristics, leading them to think of humans negatively. Therefore, the control theory could explain murder as a phenomenon involving the murderer as a socially detached person. The murderer, whether or not he commits murder for his own benefit or on the request of other people, has an operative deviant personality that could not think beyond the consequences of losing valuable human life. In that case, one could resolve murder through the resolution of the problem of social detachment per se. Any person who has suffered abusive experiences under the hands of his parents or peers should not find himself without anyone helping him. Preventing the occurrence of murder should come in the form of a proactive solution that would enable abused people to find harmony with society again through a series of programs and therapies provided by authorities (Morrall 124-155).
Rape Vis-à-vis Labeling Theory
The crime of rape proves highly devastating to the dignity of those who suffer under it. Men and women alike undergo traumatic experiences against their sexual security, with rape being a grave manifestation of violating the consent of a person to commit sexual acts. More often than not, rape comes with it the stigma that tends to leave a seemingly indelible mark of trauma to victims, mainly because of the fact that the violation of sexual consent of one has negative impressions brought forth by society. Rape victims, in that regard, tend to find themselves in seemingly complete withdrawal with the rest of society due to social views that tend to undermine their status and situation (Horvath & Brown 46-73).
Any form of trauma related to sex involves the effect of shame brought forth by society. Societies, particularly highly conservative ones, tend to see sexual acts as those created with the consent of the people involved. Normally, the setup includes two people who know one another romantically. Rape, however, alters that setup entirely by involving a deviant – the rapist, and the rape victim. Rape victims usually fall on the radar of rapists through the mere sight of the latter driven by relentless thoughts of sexual perversion. Rape consequently happens when the rapist fails to control his urges controlled by sexual perversion and finds an opportunity where his target rape victim is vulnerable. The rape victim then becomes highly traumatized, as rape highly involves the violation of sexual values held firmly by the former. Society, in return, tends to see any form of issue related to sex as taboo, entailing the rape victim to incur shame and trauma leading to social withdrawal (Horvath & Brown 46-73).
In the case of rape, labeling theory provides strong repercussions. Society has several constructs that tend to influence the behavior of people. Labeling, therefore, is a social construct where certain acts gain socially held impressions. In other words, any kind of act falls unto the judgment of society through its constructed labels. For rape, several societies view it as a shameful act pitiful upon the rape victim and dishonorable upon the rapist. Nevertheless, the fact that many societies hold topics on sex as taboo makes rape victims more sensitive towards their position. Labels portraying rape in a highly negative manner tend to push rape victims towards social withdrawal due to fear of shame that they might get once anyone realizes their situation. Therefore, resolving the situation of rape victims has largely to do with changing the impression of people towards rape – that it is a highly despicable crime and its victims should receive proper care and treatment devoid of any destructive connotations on their experience (Horvath & Brown 46-73).
Another concept of rape enabling it to prevail as a crime in societies is the fact that gender differences still thrive. Rape is commonly associated with women, and that fact alone gives a negative impression towards their position in society. Men, whose status in many societies tend to be that of a superior one compared to women, tend to hold the impression as potential rapists. With that comes the acceptability of rape among certain groups of men, to the peril of women bound to suffer mentally scars due to violations against their personal dignity. Therefore, one could tell that rape against women frequently happens in a society whose labels on men tend to allude to their superiority and entitlement to impose their will against women. With that comes the necessity of changing such virtue through the creation of reformative mechanisms in the form of education, policy campaigns and the like promoting gender equality. Through such mechanisms, rape cases would lower down since people would begin to realize the values imparted by gender equality, alongside the fear of lawful retribution from authorities once they commit rape (Horvath & Brown 17-45).
Robbery Vis-à-vis Conflict Theory
Robbery happens when one gains the desire to acquire objects of value forcefully from other people in various settings. Robbers, the ones committing robbery, commit the crime mainly for financial reasons, as they tend to lean towards stealing objects attached with considerable amounts of monetary value. In that case, robbery could become a crime that could facilitate other kinds of crime such as homicide, murder and physical assault, among many other things. With that, robbery stands as a heinous crime nations around the world respond to with serious legal punishments (Matthews 18-42).
While it is true that robbery is a crime with grave punishments, it nevertheless prevails in several societies due to the value it accords to robbers. Those who rob possessions of other people, particularly highly valuable ones, find great use from the monetary values from the objects they rob. With valuable possessions of other people at hand, robbers do not need to work for the monetary equivalent of those things anymore, especially because it might take them greater amounts of time to do so. Desperation, therefore, stands as a primary reason as to why robbery happens. Economic factors have largely to do with the phenomenon of robbery, as matters such as income distribution and productive opportunities to work tend to skew the trend of robbery depending on the status of figures (Matthews 18-42).
Conclusion
Crimes happen due to various social influences. A theoretical perspective on the crimes of murder, rape and robbery reveal that those find occurrence in societies due to various social realities confronting actors. Under the control theory, the deviancy of people turns them to murderers showing no concern to human life. The labeling theory explains how rape victims suffer from the stigma given by people towards rape, alongside the effects of gender differences. Robbery finds a proper elaboration under the conflict theory, in that the division between the rich and the poor fail to resolve the main reasons why robbers push through with their acts.
Works Cited
Horvath, Miranda, & Jennifer Brown. Rape: Challenging Contemporary Thinking. United Kingdom: Willan Publishing, 2009. Print.
Matthews, Roger. Armed Robbery. United Kingdom: Willan Publishing, 2002. Print.
Morrall, Peter. Murder and Society. United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2006. Print.
