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Conflict theory essay
Effects of excessive force of police brutality
Social conflict theory
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Conflict theory is a perspective derived from the work of Karl Marx, who believe that society is a dynamic entity and it is constantly undergoing changes driven by class conflict, who holds different interests, ideas and values, for competing scare resources and aiming to maximize their own-benefits. According to the founder of conflict theory, Karl Marx, society are divided into two category: the have and the do not have, the latter is dominated by the former ones who are those people with power in hands and with the greatest political, economic and social resources. Conflict theory assumes that society makes the norms to serve the interests of the powerful.
With respect to relationship between police and citizen, the likelihood of conflict can be explained by their different culture and norms. Their behavior conform to a substantially different set of rules or belief. Citizens want to gain a position to manifest their discontent or express a specific opinion about something in the assembling or demonstration, where police force want to maintain public order and security among these protester, and it sometimes leads police to use force to control, and the sad truth is gently force is not practical, when people may get hurt as the result of the police using strong force. In 1 July 2011, a group of demonstrators gathered in the government headquarters refused to leave. Therefore, in order to clear the situation, police used the pepper spray to the demonstrator without prior notice and using a plastic tap and handcraft to take away the protestors. The use of excessive force against citizens being seen at public and arouse people to think whether police is protecting citizen or they are doing harm to the public. “Power tends to corr...
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...ed is controversial over internet user, police using the extreme force to control the protestor’s behaviors regardless the safety of the protestors. Some of the internet user regard them as “police dogs”, implying that they are too obedient to authority. Besides, the news of the police scandal, selective enforcement, power abusing and other improper conduct issue also provoke public anger.
In particular, public attitude towards police will be negatively influenced by the well-publicized corruption news of the police force. It might further induce a negative outcome that public would not trust police force anymore or even become less cooperative with the police and tend to believe allegations of police misconduct even when the force behave properly. In the end, the future citizen-police relationship and efficiency of police investigation will be seriously affected.
Police brutality has been a recent topic this year with many protests occurring in response to these brutal acts. Protests against police brutality have been happening around the world recently. These protests try to get the police to be less rough when arresting people and be less likely to reach for their gun in an unarmed situation. People in the U.S. and Israel are protesting police brutality and inequality, so the threat of people being injured or killed by police diminishes.
...to be achieved, years, decades, lifetimes, conflict is intended to fulfill this need. Ultimately, conflict theory is about the struggles, ideologies, representations, and power that the haves possess and the have-nots want to exert. These concepts come into play causing conflict between the groups which ends in social change.
“We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the other facing what we do to the enemy” (Boyden 199).
Did you know that in 2014, shoplifting and worker’s theft cost the retail industry a loss of thirty-two billion dollars (Wahba, 2015)? According Wahba “a common misperception about shoplifting is that retailers can ‘afford’ the loss of a candy bar or a pair of jeans” (2015). This type of reasoning certainly does make more sense when explained through the context of a criminological theory. For example according to the Rational Choice theory individuals weigh the costs and benefits associated with a criminal and or deviant act and then make a conscious choice. Other criminological theories explain criminal and deviant behavior using a biological, psychological, social, conflict, or multifactor component. Taking that into consideration in this
media, that officers are abusing their power far too often and crossing the line in using excessive force
Walmart can be studied using structure functional theory and social conflict theories. Social functional theory is the relationships among parts of society and how these parts are functional(have beneficial consequences) or dysfunctional (have negative consequences. Most Americans today love to shop at Walmart because they continue to give consumers the best prices on over 120,000 products and are one stop shopping.
In other words, police brutality does not necessarily mean being physical but there are many other forms that they can abuse their power. There are thousands of cases of police using unnecessary force against citizens and due to this being, it has led to many actions. Such as riots, protests and many more.
Often through internal sources the police are often the cause of misconduct as result of the systematic factors that originates from within the police force. These factors are as follows; the officers are pressured to conform to the aspects of the police duties which are designed to sustain a substantial resistance to the criminal subculture while protecting the members within the police force, this goes to the extent of violating the law while at the same time the criminals are viewed in a suspicious perspective and with a lot of distrust. Then there is the command and the control structures that have a very firm hierarchical structure, with law enforce...
Recently in the United States there has been in increase in deaths that have come from police officers using deadly force. The use of force is inevitable as a police officer, many times their own lives or the life’s civilians are at risk when it comes to determine what type of force a officer should use. There are many incidents where police officer have to react in a matter of seconds and has to choose between his own life or that of the individual causing the disturbance. When a Police Officer uses deadly force has caused outraged with the public, stirring up protests and creating a scandal for the police officer and the Police Department. Many do not know when it is right for an officer to use deadly force and what constitutes it, or what happens when the officer does not use the appropriate amount of force that is required to control the situation. There has been many changes in Police Departments around the country to try to reduce the use of deadly force in response to the issues that have occurred because of it.
Conflict theory could between when there are two or more groups who are experiencing social strain and when that social strain that promotes social changes. The conflict theorists argue that the two groups are competing for limited resources. To be more precise, conflict theory is defined as “groups in society are engaged in continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources” (Kendall 19). This could be seen in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins when majority of people in District 12 die of starvation and the children are forced to take out tesserae to help feed their families (Collins 28). According to Kendall, the conflict theory is mostly derived from Karl Marx and Frederick Engels who wrote The Communist Manifesto, and Max Weber. Marx saw society as two halves, the haves (bourgeoisies) and the have nots (Proletariat) and the conflict between classes was desired in order to encourage social change and ultimately making society a
The first idea, people get when they hear the word law enforcement is power, security, fear, and respect. What is the appropriate amount of force, law enforcement officer should use? Society judges the actions of law enforcement, without taking into account the side of the officer. There are many types of force a police officer may use when the situation calls for it. Law enforcement officers use discretion to decide on the right force to use. Force cannot be defined by individuals or by laws, instead force is exercised by individuals that upheld our criminal’s justice system. The types of force that officer can use are soft hand, hard hand, Taser, baton, presence, and deadly force. Presence is were suspects see law enforcement and turn themselves in. Soft hands is a tactic used by calm officers. Soft hand police officers like to discuss the situation out and try to use less lethal force. Hard hands is used by more experienced police officers. The force is key for many police officers because it can determine the lives of many individuals. Society sees the force of the law enforcement officers in the media, community, and
Conflict theory is a theory derived from the works of Karl Marx. It enhances the role of cruelty and power in producing social order. It is the control theory that believes inequality exists because those in control of an unequal share of society’s resources actively defend their advantages. This is social control. Determining that one social class or group is more privileged then another. Control theory generally consists of four points, conflict built into society, one group becomes dominant, agreement is false, and conflict in society is desirable. Control theory suggests that each class is unequal. Lower social classes are considered to have less skill. The theory has the belief that people with high skill level will receive a higher return and people with lower skill level will get less.
Realistic Conflict Theory As one of the oldest social psychology theories, the Realistic Conflict Theory deals with the conflict and hostility that is projected to arise between individuals or groups competing over the same limited resources. Therefore, as a resource, opportunity, or even goal, becomes harder to obtain, the amount of aggression is projected to increase as well. This theory is not only visible in many everyday situations, but it also establishes a basis for which discrimination and prejudice can be partly explained. The initial study of this theory was conducted in a three-step experiment.
The study of the social interactions of society led to some very prominent theories on the social structure of a given society. Karl Marx, who was considered to be the father of conflict theory, claimed that in any society there is a division of social classes, where one group gets and maintains control of the other groups, oftentimes exploiting those of lesser social standing. This consequently leads to a conflict of the social classes in a struggle to gain or maintain power. The names of these distinct social classes have changed over time but their defining characte...
The perspective I have chosen is the social-conflict theory. The social-conflict paradigm is a framework for building theory that envisions society as an arena of inequality generating conflict and social change. This type of analysis focuses on the inequalities within our society and the conflict that they cause between the advantaged and the disadvantaged.