What makes crime a social problem

Subculture theories primarily focus on crime and Juvenile delinquency. Theorists believe that if this pattern of offending. Criminology Today An Integrative Introduction, written by Frank Schmalleger builds on a social policy theme by Contrasting two perspectives that have become popular in not only the United States, but other countries as well.

These views are coined social responsibility perspective and social problems. The field of sociology has a different approach to social problems compared to other fields. Sociology provides the perception that social problems are caused by the structural arrangement of various organs of society or the social forces.

The discipline of sociology concerned with the relationship between people and the various structures of society that include social institutions such as the family, education, and the military Leon-Guerrero, Unlike other sciences, sociology presents the. There are many different types of crime.

The two main sub-categories are violent crimes and property crimes. Violent crimes are against people, such as murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

Young white males commit the majority of both of these crimes, and make up more than half of the arrests of all crimes. Although the public is concerned about crime, at least some of this concern might exceed what the facts about crime would justify.

For example, although most of the public, as we just noted, thinks the crime rate has been rising, this rate has actually been declining since the early s. And although one-fifth of the public worries about getting murdered, homicides comprise less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all violent and property crime street crime ; only about 7 of every , Americans, or 0. Crime is indeed a real problem, but public concern about crime may be higher than the facts warrant. To the extent this is true, news media coverage of crime may be partly responsible Robinson, For example, if the television news and newspapers suddenly have several stories about a few sensational crimes, public concern about crime may jump, even though crime in general has not risen at all.

Similarly, the news media have increased their crime coverage even when crime is falling, as happened during the early s when the major US television networks more than doubled their nightly news stories about crime even though crime had been declining Freeman, The news media, in fact, distort the amount and nature of crime in several ways Surette, First, they overdramatize crime by reporting it in many news stories.

Similarly, the vast majority of crime stories feature violent crime, even though violent crime comprises only about 12—14 percent of all street crimes combined. Media attention to violent crime thus gives the public the false impression that most crime is violent when in fact most crime involves a theft of some sort property crime. The news media feature violent crime, even though violent crime comprises only a small portion of all crime.

Third, the media tend to highlight crimes committed by African Americans or other people of color and crimes with white victims. A greater percentage of crime stories involve people of color as offenders than is true in arrest statistics.

A greater percentage of crime stories also involve whites as victims than is actually true, and newspaper stories of white-victim crimes are longer than those of black-victim crimes.

Crimes in which African Americans are the offenders and whites are the victims also receive disproportionate media coverage even though most crimes involve offenders and victims of the same race. In all these ways, the news media exaggerate the extent to which people of color commit crimes and the extent to which whites are victims of crimes. Fourth, the media also tend to highlight crimes committed by youths. In one study of thousands of local newscast stories, about two-thirds of the stories about violence depicted youthful offenders, even though teenagers commit only about 14—16 percent of violent crime Jackson, In a related problem, media stories involving teenagers are much more likely to show them committing crime or other antisocial acts than committing good deeds or other positive behavior.

In these ways, the news media convey a false impression that leads the public to believe both that youths commit much of our violent crime and that youth violence has been rising even though it has actually declined since the early s. It is surprisingly difficult to know how much crime occurs. Crime is not like the weather, when we all can see whether it is raining, snowing, or sunny. Usually when crime occurs, only the criminal and the victim, and sometimes an occasional witness, know about it.

We thus have an incomplete picture of the crime problem, but because of various data sources we still have a pretty good understanding of how much crime exists and of who is most likely to commit it and be victimized by it. Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U. In order to try and solve or find out what is a social problem we must first know what is considered a social problem.

According to Macionis a social problem is a condition that undermines the well-being of some or all members if a society and is usually a matter of public controversy.

It other words it has to be something that makes Americans try to prove why their views is right on a certain topic. I believe that so many social problems would be solved if Americans would be more open- minded instead of having a one sided view.

Even though violent and property crimes are both serious I think because violent crimes are physical they are most likely to be reported. Also it depends on the victim and whether or not they want to report the crime.

Sometimes victims feel like not reporting the crime because of their personal feelings and if a crime is not brought to the attention of police the crime cannot be dealt with. Criminology is the wider area that is used to evaluate the context of crime. The scientific study of criminals and crime is used for evaluating the basis and reasons of crime done by people. It makes use of different theories and school of thought in order to analyse the reasons behind criminal activities.

The main purpose of this paper is to consider one criminology theory or school of thought. The criminology theory that is used for analysing the requirements of this paper is rational choice theory. In the theory of reintegrative shaming, Brathwaite explained why some societies have higher crime rate than others, why certain people or certain groups of people are more likely to commit a crime, and how the community can effectively deal with the crime in order to prevent future crimes.

Brathwaite theory of reintegrative shaming is heavily influence by the work of early theoretical theories including labelling, subcultural, control, opportunity, and learning theories Braithwaite, Brathwaite supported control theory argument that individual are naturally drawn to commit criminal acts for the purpose of personal gain.

Brathwaite argued that individuals who are integrated into the community and are involved in a committed relationship are less likely to commit a crime. In contrast, individuals who are not integrated into the community. In: L. Walgrave and C. Bazemore Eds , Restorative Justice for Juveniles. Minnesota, Bottoms and D. Report submitted to the Home Office, Drakeford, Young People and Youth Justice.

Basingstoke: Macmillan, Henry, S. Milovanovic, The constitution of constitutive criminology. In: D. Nelken Ed. London: Sage, Hoggett, P. Bristol: School for Advanced Urban Studies, Humphrey, C. Scrapens, Whatever happened to the liontamers? An examination of accounting change in the public sector. Local Government Studies , 18 3 , pp. Junger-Tas, J. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research , 5 2 , pp. Lash, S. Urry, The End of Organised Capitalism. Mascarenhas, R. Public Administration Review , 53 4 , pp.

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