Positivist criminology is a method in which data is collected, using observable factors, to explains why people commit crimes or act deviant (Beirne& Messerschmidt, 2006). A positivist theory call Anomie theory was created by Emile Durkheim, but I agree with Robert Merton's/Cohen''s explanation of it. Merton thought society gives goals to individuals, with out the tools to obtain them, in which this causes deviant behavior. Merton talks about goals being set for individual's which can't always be obtained legally. Where I live Washington Heights, drug dealing is popular, and I know people who sell them. One of my friends parents sells drugs because he can't obtain a job and doesn't speak English well. With so much stress on him to support his family he has resulted to selling drugs to support his family. The class system of the United States pressures individuals to want to gain progress financially and socially. In some cases this progress can’t be obtain legally and leads people to act deviant.
One illegitimate mean of gaining success are white collar crimes, in which a person uses their normal work to commit crimes. White collar crime is a crime committed by a person of respectable high social status in the course of his or her occupation. White collar crimes tend to do the most social harm and usually committed by members of the upper class (Beirne & Messerschmidt, 2006). White collar crime shows that not only the poor committed crimes. White collar crimes usually occurred in companies that are large. Some white collar crimes are credit card fraud, and bank fraud. Another type of white collar crime is embezzlement, in which funds are granted to a trusted person and the trusted person takes some of the money (Keel, 2008). ...
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...rd for some of the children to learn. Especially one of my friends that I knew just decided to drop out because he felt as if school wasn’t for him. The movie was true where rich children get better education because their parents have very high ranking jobs or lots of money. Also some of the children in the school felt like outcast because they were from lower income areas compared to those who had rich parents. Also one of my teachers a while ago told me that people whose parents have high ranking jobs pass on better business etiquette to their children. I don’t know if it’s true for all , but I think this is true in America where if your parents know more about business the child is more likely to succeed.
Works Cited
Sutherland. H (N.A) Differential Association Theory Retrieved From http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/sutherland.html
1. Reiman explains that the idea that white collar crime is taken less seriously is because it protects the elite classes. For example, if the public believes they should fear the poor more than the rich, the rich can commit more crimes and go unnoticed because the population is focused on the poor Reiman explains that that the way crime is explained does not exactly fit what we think crime is. He explains that the notion that white-collar crime being harmless is based on the idea that white collar crimes do not end in injury or death is false because more people’s lives are put at risk than “lower class” crimes. Reinman thinks it is necessary to re- educate the public on white-collar crimes for economic
White collar crime is a term created by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 that refers to crimes committed by people of higher social status, companies, and the government according to the book “White-Collar Crime in a Nutshell” by Ellen Podgor and Jerold Israel. White collar crimes are usually non-violent crimes committed in order to have a financial-gain (Podgor and Israel 3). A very well known white collar crime that has even been taught in many history classes is the Watergate scandal. This is a white collar crime that was committed by government authorities. Watergate was a crime that shocked the nation.
Deviant theories from a positivist perspective are based on biological or social determinism. Determinism is the view that something “is determined or caused by forces beyond the individual’s control” (Thio, 2010, p. 7). Positivist sociologists apply the deterministic view to each individual deviant to determine the reason for his or her deviant behavior. Multiple theories from the positivist perspective try to explain the reason for deviant behavior. Phrenology and anomie-strain are two such theories that have been used to explain deviant behavior from this perspective.
Up until the 19th century, Classicist ideas dominated the way in which people looked at crime. However during the late 19th century a new form of “scientific criminology” emerged, called Positivism (Newburn, 2007). Positivism looked at the biological factors on why someone would commit a crime, this involved looking at the physical attributes of a person, looking at their genetic make-up and their biochemical factors.
White-collar crime is the financially motivated illegal acts that are committed by the middle and upper class through their legitimate business or government activities. This form of crime was first coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (Linden, 2016). Crime has often been associated with the lower class due to economic reasons. However, Sutherland stressed that the Criminal Justice System needed to acknowledge illegal business activity as crime due to the repercussions they caused and the damage they can cause to society (Linden, 2016). Crime was prevalently thought to only be
white-collar crime” (Shapiro, S. P.). It is no surprise to anyone that positions of trust regularly decentralize to corporations, occupations, and “white-collar” individuals. Nevertheless, the concept of “white-collar crime” involves a false relationship between role-specific norms and the characteristics of those who typically occupy these roles. Most of the time, it is the offender that is looked at more than the crime itself and assumptions about the individuals automatically come into play. It has be to acknowledged that “ class or organizational position are consequential and play a more complex role in creating opportunities for wrongdoing and in shaping and frustrating the social control process than traditional stereotypes have allowed” (Shapiro, S. P.). The opportunities to partake in white-collar crime and violate the trust in which ones position carries are more dependent upon the individuals place in society, not just the work place. The ways in which white-collar criminals establish and exploit trust are an important factor in truly exploring and defining the concept of white-collar crime.
Most people consider this crime to consist of CEO’s manipulating their way to making a large fortune. This of course, is true most of the time in high-profile cases. For example, in late 2001 Enron Corporation executives confessed to overstating the company’s earnings. This lead to artificially inflating what the company was worth and deceived the investors. It took some time to unravel all the fraud put behind this devious act but shows how sophisticated white-collar crime can be. Although it’s usually associated with upper management of corporations, people from all different levels and occupations can perform this crime ("How White-collar Crime Works").
In order to coherently understand the meaning of white collar crime, Friedrichs (2010) states that it must be approached in stages. The first stage is polemical, and is related to the definition. The second and third stages are typological and operational. As previously mentioned, white collar crime has been quite heavily debated, and currently there is no definition that is generally accepted by criminologists. Some argue that the term white collar crime should be abandoned altogether, and another issue is where it is appropriate to draw the line between legal practices and illegal practices (Hayes & Prenzler, 2012; Dobovšek & Slak, 2015). Throughout time, the scope of white collar crime has broadened to include many other typologies of white collar crime, due to the fact that technology has and continues to advance. The most common types of white collar crime include occupational crime, corporate crime, state crime, financial
White collar crimes do not garner as much media attention as that of violent crimes (Trahan, Marquart, & Mullings 2005). This is an odd fact because white collar crimes cost society much more than violent crimes do (Messner & Rosenfeld 2007). While there are many different definitions for white collar crime, Schoepfer and Piquero describe it as a nonphysical crime that is used to either obtain goods or to prevent goods from being taken (2006). People who commit these crimes are looking for personal or some sort of organizational gain and are being pressured to be economically successful from the idea of the American dream. The authors suggest that there are two types of people who commit crimes, those who have an immense desire for control and those who fear losing all they have worked hard for (Schopfer & Piquero 2006). Both groups have different reasons for turning to crime, but both groups commit the crime to benefit themselves. It was found that higher levels of high school drop outs were directly correlated to levels of embezzlement in white collar crime (2006). Because they are drop outs, they are less likely to be successful legitimately and turn to crime more often than their graduate
White collar crime is viewed as non-violent and treated differently than other types of crimes; some that are even violent in nature. In general, personal and public perception can vary from one individual to another. “A recent survey conducted by the National White Collar Crime Center (NWCCC) confirm that the public considers certain white collar crimes as more serious than some street crimes, according to Drs. Marilyn Price and Donna Norris” (Perri, J.D., CFE, CPA, 2011, p. 23). Even though white collar crimes do not seem a violent as someone that commits murder; there is still major damage done. For example, a fraud victim goes through a lot of hardship. They can be harassed, have their identity stolen and lose everything. This in many cases can be looked at as a severe crime. Valuables taken during a burglary can be replaced easily, but someone’s identity and livelihood cannot be given back. Most white...
The positivist view of deviance places emphasis on individual's behavior being manipulated by outside forces (Goode, 2007, p. 23). Individual's are unable to contend with these outside forces which are beyond their control. Criminals and other deviants are created through biological defects which were responsible for their behavior, as it was something inherently organic and passed on through birth. The self-control theory of crime was developed by Travis Hirshi and Michael Gottfredson, two famous criminologists. Self-control theory, also known as the General Theory of crime, portrays deviance as stemming from the criminal's lack of ...
There are many different aspects of criminal justice policy. One in particular is the different theories of crime and how they affect the criminal justice system. The Classical School of criminology is a theory about evolving from a capital punishment type of view to more humane ways of punishing people. Positivist criminology is maintaining the control of human behavior and criminal behavior. They did this through three different categories of Biological studies, which are five methodologies of crime that were mainly focused on biological theories, Psychological theories, which contains four separate theories, and the Sociological theories, which also includes four different methods of explaining why crime exists. The last theory is about Critical criminology. Their goal was to transform society in a way that would liberate and empower subordinate groups of individuals.
Positivism is the studying and recording of social life based on observations. Positivism is important in advancing knowledge due to the idea that this newly observed and obtained information can be used to reform society.
White-collar crimes and organizational structure are related because white collar-crimes thrive in organizations that have weak structures. According to Price and Norris (2009), the elites who commit white collar-crimes usually exploit weaknesses in organizational structure and formulate rules and regulations that favor their crimes. Makansi (2010) examines case studies to prove that white-collar crime is dependent on organizational structure. For example, the financial crisis that Merchant Energy Business faced in 2001-2002 occurred due to the liberal Financial Accounting Board, which failed to provide a standard model of valuing natural gas and fuel. Moreover, a financial crisis that rocked the securitization market in 2008 was due to fraudulence in the pricing of securitization products. These examples ...
Positivism is a research method that developed from the behavioral revolution, which sought to combine positivism and empiricism to politics (Halperin and Heath, 2012: 27). That is to say, this research approach is governed by natural law to observe, understand and to find meaning in the empirical world. This type of research seeks to answer two empirical questions, such as ‘what is out there’ and ‘what do we call it’ (Gerring, 2001: 156). Positivism is only interested in phenomenons that can be observed through our senses. Thus, positivism is interested in social realities that can be observed and measured by the scientific method (Halperin and Heath, 2012: 29). Furthermore, positivism believes that the gathering of evidence through scientific method can create knowledge and laws, known as induction (Halperin and Heath, 2012: 27). That is to say, evidence can be verified and later generalized then applied to multiple contexts. A positivist would investigate empirical questions that assume how the world works through the accuracy of a probable truth (Gerring, 2001: 155).