Fluent Essays

The assignment I need help with in in the attache word doc. The reading for this unit is also attached in case needed. The assignment is to reply to the peer posts using 1 refeence. APA unit_1_peer_discussion_post.docx unit_1_read.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Course: Criminological Theory: CCJ5600_0518_19101 Textbook: Schmalleger, F. J. (2012). Criminology today: An integrative introduction (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Assignment: reply to the following peer’s statement. Respond Min 150 words (one reference) Dobey, Sabrina, posted 05/20/2020 10:22 PM EDT Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon; It includes within its scope the processes of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting toward the breaking of laws (Wolfgang, 1963, pp. 155-162). Therefore to study crime, one must know the average human who commits crimes. Human behavior is just that behavior that is exhibited only by humans, and it is something that can be learned. Most human behavior is learned by observing others model a particular behavior (Criminology: The study of crime and behavior, n.d.).We can learn a person or a group of people behaviors as if it relates to the criminal justice side of life. Reading the quote and applying my criminal knowledge, it says that what we think is not a crime, could be a crime in another form. Basically, we all have learned the behaviors of humans and the way they behave if they have committed a crime. We have put a normal cap on the word crime, but it could be so much more if we look into the eyes of the average human. That is my take on the quote. Because laws were only made to provide structure in a chaotic country, so if no laws were made, how would we know someone is committing a crime. We would assume because they are not doing the same thing an average person is doing, this makes them not equal. Political it makes the politician relevant because he knows to call something a crime and charge people money not to commit that crime is money for the world. If you commit the crime, you have to pay a fine, go to jail or complete community services, and that puts money back into the city, state, and country in which we live. We all have to be nosey when it comes to crime and ask open-ended questions to people to discover needs. We have to remember that all crime is not the same, and the people committing the crime are not the same. Studying crime should be something that is forever changing because the world changes and criminals are smart, or they act it, but we have to beat them at their game. Assignment: reply to the following peer’s statement. Respond Min 150 words (one reference) from Major, Tom, posted 05/20/2020 05:58 PM EDT Criminology is concerned with establishing guidelines for avoiding or regulating such unacceptable actions and organizing state responses to those involved in those activities (Stucky, 2013). Political sociology is concerned with how politics influences culture and how it influences culture. Political sociologists typically concentrate on four main concepts: power, state, hegemony, and struggle, with power perhaps being the most important. For political sociologists, one central issue was whether individuals and groups in society have the potential to fulfill their objectives and whether that action is being taken and perpetuated. While power is comprehensive and multifaceted, coercion or aggression is one aspect, and intimidation is a central concern for criminologists with each being legal and illegal (Stucky, 2013). Consequently, it is acknowledged that a method of exercising power is by setting standards. For political sociologists and criminologists, therefore, the major issue is to understand what determinants that provide to the development of those laws, the actions that authorize certain laws, and when those rules can be imposed on others. From a political point of view, offenses are the product of guidelines that have been implemented into the law by influential interests and are then utilized to identify specific unacceptable modes of conduct as illegal (Schmalleger, 2012). Viewed in this context, laws represent the demands of the politically engaged and offenses are simply manifestations of conduct viewed as actual or potential vulnerabilities to their objectives by the ones with authority. While political crime is considered the oldest and most persistent criminal trend in history, criminologists have widely overlooked it. The concept was generally considered a criminological satellite, a unique series of breaches of law that emerge around the idea of various offenses (Schafer, 1971). This disregard of political crimes by criminologists and other social scientists is all the more unusual because the existing information is quite substantial and there are no distinctive complications in trying to understand them. If we only look at the modern history of the 20th century, the most dramatic changes we discover are political ones. Eighth Edition Criminology TODAY T U R N E R , AN INTEGRATIVE INTRODUCTION T A M M Frank Schmalleger, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor Emeritus, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke Y ISBN 1-323-65050-4 1 5 2 1 T S Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City São Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction, Eighth Edition, by Frank Schmalleger. Published by Pearson. Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. AF Archive/Alamy CHAPTER 1 T U R N E R , WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGY? LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions: What is crime? What is the definition of crime that the author of this text has chosen to use? ● What is deviance? How are crime and deviance similar? How do they differ? ● Who decides what should be criminal? How are such decisions made? ● What is the theme of this text ? Upon what two contrasting viewpoints does it build? ● What does it mean to say that “criminal activity is diversely created and variously interpreted”? 1 5 2 1 T S ISBN 1-323-65050-4 ● T A M M Y Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction, Eighth Edition, by Frank Schmalleger. Published by Pearson. Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. 2 CHAPTER 1  t :+$7,6&5,0,12/2*< ■ crime Human conduct in violation of the criminal laws of the federal government, a state, or a local jurisdiction that has the power to make such laws. T U R N E R , T A M $SKRWRIURPWKHKLJKO\SRSXODU&\%679VKRZNCIS. Shown from left M to right are Sean Murray, Brian Dietzen, and Pauley Perrette. Why do many people like to watch TV crime shows like NCIS? Y on the Internet thought to be secure? While this text may not answer each of these questions, it examines the causative factors in 1 effect when a crime is committed and encourages an appreciation of 5 the challenges of crafting effective crime-control policy. 2 What Is Crime? 1 As T the word implies, criminology is clearly concerned with crime. As we begin our discussion of criminology, let’s consider just what S term crime means. Like anything else, crime can be defined in the several ways, and some scholars have suggested that at least four definitional perspectives can be found in contemporary criminology. These diverse perspectives see crime from (1) legalistic, (2) political, (3) sociological, and (4) psychological viewpoints. How we see any phenomenon is crucial because it determines the assumptions that we make about how that phenomenon should be studied. The perspective that we choose to employ when viewing crime determines the kinds of questions we ask, the nature of the research we conduct, and the type of answers that we expect to receive. Those answers, in turn, influence our conclusions about the kinds of crime-control policies that might be effective. Seen from a legalistic perspective, crime is human conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a state, the federal government, or Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction, Eighth Edition, by Frank Schmalleger. Published by Pearson. Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 1-323-65050-4 According to social commentators, people are simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by crime—especially gruesome crimes involving extreme personal violence. The popularity of today’s TV crime shows, Hollywood-produced crime movies, truecrime books and magazines, and Web sites devoted exclusively to the coverage of crime supports that observation. The CBS TV megahit NCIS, for example, was named the number one TV drama in 2014 and received an impressive three nominations for TV’s 2014 People’s Choice Award.1 The show was also nominated as the “Favorite TV Crime Drama,” with individual episodes drawing more than 24 million viewers.2 Earlier, CSI: Miami, which ran for ten seasons until going off the air in 2012, garnered 50 million regular viewers in more than 55 countries. By its eighth season it had become the most popular television show in the world.3 Other widely followed TV crime series, both past and present, include shows such as True Detective (HBO), American Crime (ABC), Fargo (FX), Bones (Fox), Grimm (NBC), Castle (ABC), Criminal Minds (CBS), Blue Bloods (CBS), Without a Trace (CBS), Magic City (HBO), The Unit (CBS), The Killing (AMC), White Collar (USA), The District (CBS), Boardwalk Empire (HBO), The Shield (FX), The Wire (HBO), Cold Case (CBS), NCIS (CBS), and Law and Order (NBC)—along with the Law and Order spin-offs, Law and Order: Criminal Intent and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. American TV viewers are hungry for crime-related entertainment and have a fascination with criminal motivation and detective work. Some crimes cry out for explanation. Yet one of the things that fascinates people about crime—especially violent crime—is that it seems to be inexplicable. Some crimes are especially difficult to understand, but our natural tendency is to seek out some reason for the unreasonable. We search for explanations for the seemingly unexplainable. How, for example, can the behavior of child killers be understood, anticipated, and even prevented? Why don’t terrorists acknowledge the emotional and personal suffering they inflict? Why do some robbers or rapists kill and even torture, utterly disregarding human life and feelings? People also wonder about “everyday” crimes such as burglary, robbery, assault, vandalism, and computer intrusion. Why, for example, do people fight? Does it matter to a robber that he may face prison time? How can people sacrifice love, money, careers, and even their lives for access to illegal drugs? What motivates terrorists to give up their own lives to take the lives of others? Why do gifted techno-savvy teens and preteens hack sites AF Archive/Alamy Introduction :+$7,6&5,0(   ■ criminalize a local jurisdiction that has the power to make such laws. Without a law that circumscribes a particular form of behavior, there can be no crime, no matter how deviant or socially repugnant the behavior in question may be. The notion of crime as behavior4 that violates the lawT derives from earlier work by criminologists like Paul W.U Tappan, who defined crime as “an intentional act in violation of the criminal law committed without defense or excuse, andR penalized by the state as a felony or misdemeanor.”5 EdwinN Sutherland, regarded by many as a founding figure in American E criminology, said of crime that its “essential characteristic is that it is behavior which is prohibited by the State as an injury to theR State and against which the State may react by punishment.”6 , For purposes of this text, we will employ a legalistic approach because it allows for relative ease of measurement of crimes committed. Official statistics on crime, such as thoseT shown in Figure 1–1, report crime in terms of legislatively Without a law that circumscribes a particular form of behavior, there can be no crime.… A M M Y Per 100,000 population 6,000 1963 First baby boomers reach age 17, entering the crime-prone years 4,000 Dollar limit for larceny is removed; measurement change results in rate increase To make illegal. established categories, and the number of offenses shown reflect statutory definitions of crime categories. A serious shortcoming of the legalistic approach to crime, however, is that it yields the moral high ground to powerful individuals who are able to influence the making of laws and the imposition of criminal definitions on lawbreakers. By making their own laws, powerful but immoral individuals can escape the label “criminal.” While we have chosen to adopt the legalistic approach to crime in this text, it is important to realize that laws are social products, so crime is socially relative in the sense that it is created by legislative activity. Hence, sociologists are fond of saying that “crime is whatever a society says it is.” In Chapter 8, we will explore this issue further and will focus on the process of criminalization, which is the method used to criminalize some forms of behavior—or make them illegal—while other forms remain legitimate. A second perspective on crime is the political one, where crime is the result of criteria that have been built into the law by powerful groups and are then used to label selected undesirable forms of behavior as illegal. Those who adhere to this point 1980 Crime rate peaks at 5,950 1991 Second high of 5,898 1992 First baby boomers reach age 45, leaving the crime-prone years 1 5 2 1 T S 2014 Crime rates drop to a 40-year low ISBN 1-323-65050-4 2,000 0 1933 FIGURE 1–1 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 1968 3 1973 1978 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003 2008 2014 |Crime Rates in the United States, 1933–2014 Source: Schmalleger, Frank Criminology. Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey ISBN 0132966751. Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction, Eighth Edition, by Frank Schmalleger. Published by Pearson. Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. 4 CHAPTER 1  t :+$7,6&5,0,12/2*< a threat to the group in power.”7 Galliher points out that, because legal definitions of criminality are arrived at through a political process, the subject matter of criminality will be artificially limited if we insist on seeing crime solely as a violation of the criminal law. Some criminologists insist that the field of criminology must include behaviors that go beyond those defined as crimes through the political process; not doing so, they say, restricts rather than encourages inquiry into relevant forms of human behavior.8 T Adherents of the third perspective, the sociological (also called U “sociolegal”) viewpoint, would likely agree with this statement, seeing crime as “an antisocial act of such a nature R that its repression is necessary or is supposed to be necessary to N the preservation of the existing system of society.”9 Some criminologists have gone so far as to claim that any definiE of crime must include all forms of antisocial behavior.10 tion Ron Claassen, a modern-day champion of restorative justice R (discussed in more detail in chapters 9 and 10), suggested, ,for example, that “crime is primarily an offense against human relationships, and secondarily a violation of a law—since laws are T written to protect safety and fairness TABLE 1-1| What Is Crime? A in human relationships.”11 Depending on how we look at it, “crime” can be understood in various ways. The four A more comprehensive socioM major perspectives useful in defining crime are: logical definition of crime was ofM fered by Herman Schwendinger and 7KH/HJDOLVWLF Julia Schwendinger in 1975: Crime Y According to the legalistic perspective, crime is: encompasses “any harmful acts,” inhuman conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a state, the federal government, cluding violations of “the fundamenor a local jurisdiction that has the power to make such laws. Seen this way, if there is tal prerequisites for well-being, [such 1 no law against it, there can be no crime, no matter how deviant or socially repugnant as] food, shelter, clothing, medical 5 the behavior in question may be. services, challenging work and rec7KH3ROLWLFDO reational experiences, as well as se2 According to the political perspective, crime is: curity from predatory individuals or 1 which are the result of criteria that have been built into the law by powerful groups repressive and imperialistic elites.”12 then used to label selected undesirable forms of behavior as illegal.T Seen this way, laws The Schwendingers challenged crimserve the interests of the politically powerful, and crimes are merely forms of behavior inologists to be less constrained in S that are perceived by those in power as direct or indirect threats to their interests. what they see as the subject matter 7KH6RFLRORJLFDO DNDVRFLROHJDO of their field, saying that violations of According to the sociological (or sociolegal) perspective, crime is: human rights may be more relevant an antisocial act of such a nature that its repression is necessary for the preservation of to criminological inquiry than many the existing social order. From this viewpoint, crime is primarily an offense against huacts that have been politically or leman relationships, and secondarily a violation of the law. gally defined as crime. “Isn’t it time to raise serious questions about the 7KH3V\FKRORJLFDO assumptions underlying the definiAccording to the psychological point of view, crime is: tions of the field of criminology,” a form of social maladjustment, especially one which is against the law, that can be asked the Schwendingers, “when a seen as a difficulty that an individual has in remaining in harmony with his or her social man who steals a paltry sum can environment. Seen this way, crime is problem behavior for both the individual and be called a criminal while agents of for society. the State can, with impunity, legally Source: Pearson Education, Inc. of view say that crime is a definition of human conduct created by authorized agents in a politically organized society. Seen this way, laws serve the interests of the politically powerful, and crimes are merely forms of behavior that are perceived by those in power as direct or indirect threats to their interests. Thus, the political perspective defines crime in terms of the power structures that exist in society and asserts that criminal laws do not necessarily bear any inherent relationship to popular notions of right and wrong. Even though political processes that create criminal definitions are sometimes easier to comprehend in totalitarian societies, the political perspective can also be meaningfully applied to American society. John F. Galliher, a contemporary criminologist, summarized the political perspective on crime when he wrote, “One can best understand crime in a class-structured society such as the United States as the end product of a chain of interactions involving powerful groups that use their power to establish criminal laws and sanctions against less powerful persons and groups that may pose ISBN 1-323-65050-4 Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction, Eighth Edition, by Frank Schmalleger. Published by Pearson. Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. :+$7,6&5,0(   5 ISBN 1-323-65050-4 ■ Follow the author’s tweets about the latest crime and justice news @schmalleger. reward men who destroy food so that price levels can be maintained whilst a sizable portion of the population suffers from malnutrition?”13 Jeffrey H. Reiman, another contemporary criminologist, asked similar questions. “The fact is that the label ‘crime’ is not used in America to name all or the worst of the actions that cause misery and suffering to Americans,” said Reiman. “It is primarily reserved for the dangerous actions of the poor.” Criminal behavior Writing abo ... Purchase answer to see full attachment