Crime Theories (Essay Sample)

Name Institution Course Tutor Date Socioeconomic Structure and Crime Theories: Forming a New Theory Crime is a social deviance issue that has troubled the community since immemorial. Criminologists and criminal justice experts are today, more than ever, training their focus on sociology to understand the meaning and source of crime. These experts have a framework for their reasoning and arguments thanks to existing crime theories. Some common tenets across crime theories are socioeconomic structure and social interactions. Socioeconomic structure refers to people’s position economically, like their level of income, while social interactions refer to how people relate and the distance between their relationships. This paper will discuss the three main theories of crime (functional, conflict, and interactionist theories) and use them as a basis to develop a new theory. The new theory argues that three factors are crucial to explaining crime and must be present for a crime to happen: distance diversity, superiority v minority, and motive. Functional Theories Functional theorists base their argument on the idea that different elements of society are interrelated such that one would not function without the other. In other words, the functional theory focuses on how different aspects of social structure work in tandem to produce specific results (Turner, p.3). In crime, functional theories divide into two broad explanations- social disorganization and Anomie. Social disorganization refers to the relationship between crime and societal characteristics like poverty, immigration, dilapidation, and population density. Social disorganization theory is the work of Henry D McKay and Clifford R. Shaw (1942), alumni of the University of Chicago, who studied social science. Their research was three-decade-long, where they investigated Chicago’s crime rates. The city recorded high immigration and residential mobility in the inner zones, increasing delinquency rates. The crime rate was less as they moved towards outer zones of the city where there was less immigration and urbanization. McKay and Shaw pointed out social disorganization as the result of population density, poverty, and single-parent families and as a precursor to increased crime rates (Walsh & Hemmens, p. 127). However, a gap exists in the diversity of the population. Based on that, the proposed new crime theory should include an argument on how the diversity of groups impacts crime rates. The more diverse a population is, the likelier the crime to occur. Anomie is another functional theory that holds that crime will be prevalent when people fail to attain or enjoy the socioeconomic hopes given by their leaders in government. Robert K. Merton developed this theory in 1938, after the Great Depression. Merton wanted to investigate the impact of the economic turmoil on the people and how likely they were to turn to crime. He found that the poor people who felt left out of the American Dream were frustrated, contributing to increased crime. Merton offers five ways the people turned to crime: innovation, ritualism, rebellion, and retreatism (Walsh & Hemmens, p.119). Innovation is when dissatisfied people engage in illegally producing goods and services. Ritualism is where people work for themselves without much care about the economy. Rebellion refers to blatantly rejecting the status quo and seeking new systems to control the economy. Retreatism refers to withdrawing from society and meaningful economic activities by turning to illegal drugs and substances to escape reality. Conflict Theory Conflict theory is related to functional theory in that both support that crime is a product of something wrong in society. Karl Marx is attributed as the founder of the conflict theory based on his perception of society as consisting of varied groups with different needs and interests (Turner, 2013). These different interests lead to conflict between distinct groups and, eventually, crime. This theory helps social scientists to understand crime. Often the conflict is between the majority group and minority, natives, immigrants, or different ethnic or religious groups. For instance, in America, there has been a constant conflict between natives and immigrants, which increases crime. The conflict often results from different interests, such as the availability of jobs, housing, and wage rate. For example, Native Americans may push wage rates high while immigrants push them down due to their low livelihoods and socioeconomic status. So, when the job market favors immigrants, crimes like homicides, burglary, and other harassment toward immigrants may increase. That conflict of interests causes fights and wars between the two groups, resulting in crime. Interactionist Theory The interactionist theory helps social scientists, including the criminal justice department, understand the interaction between people and how it can lead to crime. Edwin H Sutherland is credited for the differential association explanation that close association with friends can lead to delinquency and various kinds of crime (Walsh & Hemmens, p. 539). Interactionists say more macro-level factors influence social problems like poverty. In other words, a close interaction of people in poor neighborhoods can contribute to gang formation and crime. Travis Hirschi gave another explanation called social bonding, arguing that weak ties or interaction between individuals and social institutions like family and school can lead to delinquency (Walsh & Hemmens, p.148). Labeling is another perspective of interactionist theory that argues that classifying people and naming them criminals can increase the crime rate. For instance, labeling Muslims terrorists have increased young people’s radicalization, leaving the country prone to constant attacks. New Theory Analysis of the above three theories of crime has three elements in common which can form a new theory. These common elements are diversity, distance, superiority v minority, and motive, which must be present for a crime to happen. Diversity distance refers to the distinction of different groups in society. For example, Christians v Muslims, natives v immigrants, and citizens v government. The wider the distance between their diversity (conflict theory), and interaction (interactionist theory), the more likely crime is to happen. Conversely, close associations will reduce the crime rate because the people speak almost the same language and have similar needs and interests. For example, there will be less crime in a society with Sunn...