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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... ... middle of paper ... ...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.
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
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.
...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.
As expected, the police force is the main arm entrusted with the powers to ensure peace, order, and justice in society. For this very reason, the police need to maintain a high sense of respect and hesitation of law and policies that defend the wellbeing of the citizens and a country in general. However, when the police misbehave in a way that makes the normal citizen realize that the police broke the law, the citizens are most likely to reduce their cooperative behaviors towards the police (Harris, 2009, p.26). Because of this, the conflict between citizens and police officers hinders the officers’ ability to do their job to their full potential. In the United States, one of the most prominent police misconducts is the use of excessive force in handling citizens (Micucci & Gomme, 2005, p. 488). The trend has been around in the U.S. for decades now, and
media, that officers are abusing their power far too often and crossing the line in using excessive force
“We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the other facing what we do to the enemy” (Boyden 199).
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.
Experts in the criminology field have searched for ways to comprehend criminal behavior by establishing a variety of theories. One of the most interesting theories is certainly the Conflict theory. Although, some criminologists refer to conflict theory as radical theory; there are a few differences that will be mentioned subsequently in this paper by defining both theories. It is also important to mention a summary containing a combination of the radical and conflict theory principles. The relevance and applicability of these specific theories will also be discussed as it is essential for the continuation of the same. Having a clear understanding of the conflict and radical theories’ roots, as well as its development, enhances the view of how
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...
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.
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.
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
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.
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...