Definitions of Crime and Deviance
In layman’s terms, a crime is a violation act that is subject to punishment by government. In contemporary criminal justice, there is no straightforward as well as commonly acknowledged definition of the concept. Most widely held belief has been that crime has become a legal concept; across other phrases, it is a criminal offense if a pertinent as well as appropriate law declares to be so (Friedman, 2020). A crime or criminal offence would be a behaviour which is damaging both to a participant but towards the society, community, or even the government. Whereas deviance, also known as deviant behaviour in sociology, would be the research of behaviours which violate the rules, including both officially enacted rules and unofficial infringements of societal expectations (Goode, 2015). There are various ideologies based on the context of criminology such as strain theory or even labelling theory involved according to deviance and the criminal justice systems. These theories bases the research evidences for the criminologists (Point Park University, 2021). In the following paper the meaning of crime and the theories, as well as reasons of why crime have evolved into such higher context is depicted.
LO1
Crime is stated as an offence which merits the community condemnation as well as punishment, generally by means of fine or even imprisonment. Crime is different when compared to civil wrong or a tort that is considered as an action towards an individual where there is a requirement of compensation or even restitution (United Nations, 2017). Crime according to sociology is considered as the breach of laws or rules for which the governing authority could generally provide a conviction (Hester and Eglin, 2017). Criminal offences are generally prosecuted by State or even the Commonwealth, whilst the civil activities are typically brought by a person. Individuals could also initiate criminal prosecutions; however this is extremely uncommon. It is often not useful to detect whether or not that any crime is illegal. An individual who takes or borrows money without approval decides to commit a felony crime, while an individual who does not even repay money decides to commits a civil offence which is not a crime (Justia, 2022). However a civil case could be managed to bring to retrieve the funds, the borrower could only be charged with a crime offence if there is corruption involved. Jerome Hall in the year 1960 had put forward the general principles of criminal law, which involved the four crucial principles, considered as innocent until proven guilty or the presumption of innocence, burden of proof, right to remain silent and double jeopardy.
Deviance or the sociology of deviance examines behaviour and or actions which violates the social norms generally across formal based rules along with the informal violations of social norms. Deviance is generally categorized into two forms of activities, the first being crime, which is the violation of the formally stated laws, terming it as formal deviance. Formal deviance could be for instance robbery, rape, theft, assault and even murder (Torres, 2015). The second form of deviant, termed as informal deviant which includes behaviour is the violation of the informal norms stated in social terms, or which norms which have not been confided by the law. These informal deviant for instance involves standing too close to another individual, or belching loudly.
Different Types of Deviance
There are multiple theories behind the understanding of why certain individual commit crimes, some individual believe that crime has rationality or a rational choice. Whereas some individual believes criminal thinking are biological or even physiological differing from those of law abiding people. Based on sociology of criminology theories interprets society creates situations under which the person commits crimes (Boonstoppel and Thompson, 2017). Accordingly people are influenced by the society in committing crimes. The different theories based on the social deviance of criminology some such as focused here are; labelling theory, conflict theory, and social strain theory. The first theory is stated by American sociologist Robert K. Merton’s social strain typology. Merton posited a deviant behavioural typology, a categorization system intended to aid comprehension. Merton’s deviance typology had been affected by two factors: 1. individual’s intentions or compliance towards cultural goals, as well as 2. an individual’s faith in their ability to achieve their objectives (Nickerson, 2021). Conformity, innovative thinking, ritualism, retreatism, as well as revolution, as per Merton, have been the five main forms of deviant behaviour centred on such metrics. Merton’s typology is intriguing since it implies that individuals could use deviant behaviour to achieve strongly shared socioeconomic goals and values. Acknowledging one standard would be breaking another one in furthering the very first could lead to deviant behaviour. People who may be unemployed for a long time, for instance, might very well steal or advertise drugs and make extra income, seek retribution against individual who laid them off work, or even use illegal substances to feel good. Conflict theory is the second most important theoretical model of deviance. According to conflict theory, deviant behaviours are the consequence of the social group’s political, social, or material inequality and injustice. Certain factions would therefore act deviantly through responding to these inequality and injustice in attempt to transform about their occurrences, affect the social framework which somehow spawned their scenarios, or simply “act out” against those aggressors (Nscc, 2021). The Occupy Wall Street movement, which began as in fall of 2011, was an illustration of conflict theory. Outraged at severe inequality and injustice in distribution of wealth in America, activists started to prepare more communitarian lifestyles in Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in New York City—in disposition to protest against the luxurious necessities of life those at pinnacle of social scale. Labelling theory would be the third major theoretical model of deviance. Individual people become deviant whenever an aberrant designation is decided to apply on them, as well as individuals embrace this same designation by openly displaying the behavioural patterns, actions, as well as attitudes that have been involved mostly with title. According the labelling theory, individuals are often deviant like a direct consequence of others attempting to force the others into another identity (Lumen learning, 2021). One such method operates due to various stigma; when a deviant identifier is applied, the labelled individual is given a stigmatised identity. The labelling theory explains how last several behaviours of such a deviant-labelled person have been reconceptualized in light of their own mark. “Retrospective labelling” has been the method of reconstructing previous actions through light of the existing deviant individuality. According to the labelling theory, individuals such as punk kids get to be deviant therefore as consequence of others pressuring their identity into them and them implementing those.
Theories of Criminology
LO2
Policy are used in multiple routes by criminal justice system, these policies provides guidance’s to the criminal justice officials, also these policies could be crucial as a means of use in such cases where there are evidences of higher level of discretions. In senses criminal justice policy is structure system which has functions as well as processes or decisions of the agencies which deals with such crime prevention, prosecution, investigation, punishment, as well as correction (Sage, 2017). The criminal justice policy system has an impact on anyone because of national policy. Policy is a way to control people which thus ensures that individuals of the community are able to comply and comply with the rules. Juvenile punishment, drug legislative changes, domestic violence, overcrowded prisons, school violence, current federal immigration policies, terrorist acts, as well as national security are all covered by policy initiatives. It’s crucial to know the disparity between “preventing crime” as well as “reducing crime” while describing criminal policies. Criminal prevention strategies include policies and practices aimed at reducing crime. Preventing crime, in particular, “encompasses each and every action aimed at reducing the precise number of crimes and the perception of fear for crime.” Change in criminal justice policies usually occurs in response towards the need to an issue faced in the criminal system as well as the society (Burke, 2017). Policy is a method to dela with the presence of crime as well as handling offenders, where the federal government takes an active participation in the functioning and creation of the methods to control the criminal offenders. These policies before being implemented to the public follows stages during their development, to define them they are: Problem identification, policy demands, agenda formation, policy adoption, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. A prime example to define criminal justice policy in juvenile punishment around the world differs, for instance juvenile punishment system in Ireland. Ireland in legal terms has common law which basically means their legal system generate from Constitution as well as the parliament acts, also they are bound with case and decides stare law (Lawreview, 2020). Ireland Children’s Act 2001 states that children under the age of 14 where incapable of crime was abolished and had established the minimum age of a crime to be 12 years. Early it was signifying that children under the given age would not be held accountable and any sanction visited upon them, but children above the age could be faced accountable.
LO3
A political ideology is a collection of ethical ideologies, guidelines, teachings, misconceptions, or signifiers of a social change, organisation, class, or huge contingent which form the framework for how society should work as well as appears to offer several cultural and political framework for a particular social sequence, according to sociology (Carmines and D’Amico, 2015). A political ideology is primarily concerned by how authority should have been distributed and how it can be utilised. A few political groups are devoted to a single ideology, whereas others draw wide ranging motivation out of a number of related belief systems without endorsing either of them (Laberge, 2015). Ethical innovators, who often function in their very own desires, play a role inside this prominence of many ideology. Political ideologies are divided into two categories: 1. goals, which define how community must be organised, as well as 2. methods, which define the best approach to ensure the above goal. Customarily, more or less every ideology has its own notions about best type of government such as authoritarian government or democratic governance as well as the greatest economic framework for instance socialism or capitalism. Perhaps the same utterance has been used to describe both ideology and that one of the core concepts (Kappe and Schuster, 2021). For instance, the term “socialism” could be corresponded to either an economic system or perhaps an ideology which endorses a certain system. Even though the same descriptor would be used to cover a variety of ideologies, political analysts come up with prevailing opinion interpretations for such aspects. Although the attributes have always been inextricably intertwined at occasions, communism had already largely been attributed to Soviet-style regimes as well as Marxist–Leninist ideological positions throughout colloquial terms as well as academia, whilst socialism had also showed up in ascribe to a broader spectrum of ideologies that are almost always distinguishable from Marxism-Leninism.
Social Strain Theory
During French Revolution, the concepts of left as well as right had been termed to describe the seating position inside the French Estates General. The Ancien Régime as well as the Bourbon monarchy had been strongly condemned by some on the left, who backed the French Revolution, the establishment of such democratic republic, as well as the secularisation of society, as those present on the right backed the Old Regime’s existing institutions (Time, 2019). The phrase “right-wing” could allude to just about any segment of the political system that encourages free market economics as well as private enterprise, as well as socially conservative policies. Right-wing politics is characterised by a belief how certain human societies as well as hierarchical structures have become inevitable, organic, ordinary, or attractive, with law of nature, economy, or ritual often continuing to support one such stance (Czarnek, Szwed and Kossowska, 2019). In economic systems, hierarchy as well as inequality could be seen as organic outcomes of conventional cultural discrepancies or competitive pressure. Social conservatives as well as fiscal conservatives make up Right, whereas fascists as well as other right-wing movements harbour anti-capitalist viewpoints. Social equality as well as egalitarianism are central to leftist ideology, which frequently oppose hierarchical society. Left-wing politics is characterised by consideration for anyone in societal structure who have been perceived to be marginalised in comparison to the others, and also the presumption that completely unwarranted inequalities must be significantly lowered or eliminated (Blankenship et al., 2017). “Human growth thrives when individuals are involved in collaborative, mutually supportive relationships which can prosper only when exorbitant discrepancies in social position, authority, as well as fortune are nullified,” according to left-wing followers.
Citizens are prompted to establish perspectives on different of consequences as a result of the democratic system. Elections take place, as well as electorate are expected to vote on amendments to the constitution, as well as accept or disapprove taxes as well as many other proposed legislation. Just about any other concern that the official or legislative power must specify upon could become a matter of public interest whenever a large majority of individuals need it to be. External departments making a stand, a coalition, or even a government organization or official often spur or bolster such people’s political orientation (NACo, 2020). Political researchers have concentrated rather on determining how much role public sentiment could perhaps perform inside a democracy than on determining how much role it really does perform in practise. It is clear from a review of multiple records of policy design because no broad generalisation could be managed to make which might apply throughout all case scenarios. The function of public viewpoint differs significantly from concern to concern, and public opinion expresses itself through differently in different democracies (Matsueda, 2017). The safest generalisation would be that popular sentiment may not impact the specifics among most government actions, however it does dictate the terms inside which policymakers should work. Throughout its “latent” facets, public sentiment has a greater political influence. Governments who avoid the possible ramifications of latent public sentiment potentially lose in the future. Public officials who consider latent popular sentiment, on either side, might well be willing and able to take an unpalatable activity which has a deleterious impact on the public inside the immediate term if an activity has a great impact at one subsequent and much more valuable period (Peters, et al., 2021). At the community scale, popular sentiment appears to be more efficacious than at nationwide level through affecting policymaking. Public opinion polls could grant person a reasonably accurate picture of how people feel about the almost any topic inside a statistical sample. Polling could reveal details about frequency upon which people hold their personal views, the reasonable explanations for those points of view. Polling can sometimes demonstrate yet if the people that hold a viewpoint could be considered a coherent and consistent community. Polls, on the other hand, are unable to anticipate the general public’s probable outcome behaviour through public or participant actions in particular. They’re also ineffective for delving into notions that informants are foreign to.
Conflict Theory
LO4
“Justice for all” has been the goal of the criminal justice system. To maintain good order from across nation, it involves defending the defenceless, convicting lawbreakers, as well as delivering an equal justice system. One of the advantages is the preponderance of evidence. The actuality that alleged perpetrator, even accused, has always had the right to trial by jury and also that their individual rights are upheld during trial are among the most favourable role in the criminal justice system (Seidel, 2020). Furthermore, plaintiffs have been sheltered from becoming intimidated or extorted into making confessions because any evidence gathered unlawfully would have been omitted out from court case. Plaintiffs have the privilege toward a competent legal defence and thus are guarded from the eyes of the public. Such rights may appear to citizens to be crucially important, and yet many countries around the globe do not yet have community members with all of these fundamental freedoms. Several of the criminal justice system’s positive aspects are however the flaws.
Underpinning social and cultural undercurrents scourge community, culminating in organisations like the criminal court being vulnerable to racial prejudice, gender discrimination, as well as class discrimination. Furthermore, the wealthy have always had the clearly different benefit of having to make bail, recruit the best legal representation, as well as make strong linkages to assist sway the trial in their best interest. A plaintiff with financial difficulties frequently faces legal costs in additament to that same wrongdoing for which they have been charged. Furthermore, while they are assured a trained defence, numerous public defenders have been overworked and might even lack the resources or time which a top-tier private attorney would just have (Criminal Justice, 2022). As a result, wealthy defendants frequently receive beneficial results whereas less poorly defendants would not, presenting yet again another social and cultural prejudices which is hard to resolve. Throughout the last twenty years, criminologists had already worked to understand better how study has been used by policymakers and practitioners, as well as the circumstances which make it much easier to be used in practices and policies. The research looks at translational qualitative research including the means of researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) in multiple state correctional organisations as part of the efforts (WTGrant foundation, 2022). The study reveals the successfulness of RPPs in improvement and innovation into practices and policies by documenting the obstacles, enablers, as well as factors underlying mostly in process of translation.
Conclusion
As years have gone by the level of crime has risen exponentially leading to the creation of policies which have been based on the injustices as well as crimes which have been mostly focused on public. The meaning of crime or even deviance over the year though might not be visible has changed the meaning or rather has changed due to the societal tendency to evolve. Theories as seen in the paper described conforms the underlying meaning for the reason for the initiation of policies in the criminal justice systems. As such taking instance of juvenile punishment, every country has different ideologies concerned for punishment for children causing such incidents where they evade lawful punishment based on such policies. Such system needs to have certain changes where individual regardless of their crimes needs to be accountable, if there are instances where individual higher in hierarchy could evade law, systems have the necessities to twist and turn to punish the criminal.
Labelling Theory
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