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Sentencing in the criminal justice system
Sociology and other social sciences
Sentencing in the criminal justice system
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I have always had a talent for finding out the truth and detecting when people are lying. I have studied Sociology at A level and have learnt about sociologists within the prison service, this is when I became interested in studying sociology and criminology. I wish to pursue my interests at a degree level, hopefully use of the skills and knowledge I have previously obtained, either in the field of research, or a policing environment.
Sociology has made me question the ways in which we view society. Whether or not society is characterised by capitalism, or communism. I am particularly interested in the class conflict idea put forward by Karl Marx: the debate between Marxism and Functionalism is still relevant now. Hence why I think it's important that sociological perspectives and ideologies – particularly class conflict – are still studied. Alongside sociology, criminology also captured my attention, especially the focus on the criminal justice system. I have always been interested in criminology, the interest stemmed from watching crime documentaries, I always thought about the punishment of the crime and the effects it has on the criminal, the victim and society as a whole.
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Having analysed something from a different perspectives allows me to see the bigger picture, allowing me to comment the idea as a whole. In addition, English Language has improved my essay writing and making my opinion clear. I have also studied art and design at A-Level which has helped me put myself into the shoes of others when viewing a picture, which is what I must do when viewing different social
To start of the first short essay I will start to compare and contrast the criminological theory that evaluates six differences between Radical and Orthodox. “Radical criminology is defined as a method that has been described of the meaning of the effects of the behavior of the individual that may or may not resolve in criminal behavior due to the effect of social identities”(Lynch &Michalowski,p.26). “Radical criminology has the various effects of economic influence that may possibly lead to an increase of crime such as property crimes due to the fact individuals are seeking to invest money”(Lynch & Michalowski, p.109).
Siegel, L. J. (2008). Critical criminology: It's a class thing. Criminology: The core (pp. 173-196). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
During the 1970’s to the early 1990’s there had emerged two new approaches to the study of crime and deviance. The discipline of criminology had expanded further introducing right and left realism, both believe in different areas and came together in order to try and get a better understanding on crime and prevention. There were many theorists that had influenced the realism approaches such as; Jock Young (Left Wing) and James Wilson (Right Wing).
Young, J. (1981). Thinking seriously about crime: Some models of criminology. In M. Fitzgerald, G. McLennan, & J. Pawson (Eds.), Crime and society: Readings in history and society (pp. 248-309). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
The two theoretical approaches I have chosen to compare to the study of crime are Functionalism and Marxism. I have done so, as I believe both theories are important/ significant to the study of crime and differentiate from each other. I will do this by writing a critique the advantages and disadvantages of both of the theories and thus, resulting in my own personal opinion in the conclusion.
In today’s society, it is easy to spot someone blaming themselves for the occurrence of their personal life problems. For example, a single-mother may blame herself for not being able to support her children well due to a shortage of money and unavailability to find a decent job. Another could be a newly wed couple having daily arguments that may lead to their divorce, or women who are facing difficulties perceiving their housekeeping responsibilities and wanting to become something more than just a homemaker. These various private tensions may seem very personal. These dilemmas are all related to a bigger world called society and this is known as the sociological imagination. Sociological imagination suggests that people look at their own personal troubles as social issues and, in general try to connect their own individual encounters with the workings of society. The personal problems are closely related to societal issues such as unemployment, marriage, war and even the city life where the private troubles and the public issues become clearly apparent. With the understanding of the sociological imagination, I began to notice the daily choices I make, the classes I attend, the way I was raised by my parents, the group of people I choose to hang out with, the things I like to converse about with others are all somehow affected by public issues and what society tends to make us believe is right. There are many areas in my life where I feel that I am greatly affected by various sociological theories such as events dealing with gender and sexuality, family and culture, ethnicity and race, and social class and work.
1) To possess a sociological imagination means the ability to understand the interaction between biography and history, or the interplay of self and the world. My favorite food has to be broccoli. In order for broccoli to had been brought to the United States events had to have happened first. The Industrial Revolution led people to switch from making goods by hand to manufacturing goods, farmers were experimenting with new types of vegetables (broccoli). This historical event is the reason as to why now our current state of farming contains the planting of many different types of vegetables, and the accessibility of food engineering we now have today. Monsanto is an institution that has to function in order for vegetables to be available. Monsanto delivers agricultural products that support farmers all around the world. The meaning this
The ‘New Criminology’, first published in 1973, was written to criticize all previous criminological theories, positivistic and classical however, were the main focus of critique and to eliminate crime and destroy inequality in a system which has the duality of freedom, and constraint simultaneously (Walklate, 2007). The three Neo-Marxists, Ian Taylor, with criminological theory, Paul Walton, with Marxist perspectives and Jock Young, and his strength in labelling theory approaches, incorporated all their strengths in order to create a fully reached criminological and sociological theory which would critique previous schools and expose their weaknesses(Walton, Taylor, Young, 1988). The general components of ‘New Criminology’, consists of the
Social psychology is a scientific study that studies how people think, feel, and how they behave under the influence of other people (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2013, p. 2). Thinking about what social influence really means, we tend to think of a person who tries to persuade another person to acting a certain way. It can be a form of peer pressure, like taking that first puff of a cigarette, or it can be conforming to popular societal views, such as obeying the law of the land. Fiction is a great way to learn about social psychological perspectives. Watching popular theatrical films is the perfect way to learn because it illustrates the application of many perceptions within the subject of social psychology.
In my interview I chose my girlfriend's neighbor. Hector is of Mexican decent and he is here because in Meigs county the produce fields hire Mexican laborers on worker permits. Hector started out doing this then he became the boss about five years ago and received his green card and now is an American and can speak very good English. He explained to me that in Mexico there is no age when you can start working so there are young boys working at six to ten years old to help support his needy family. He also stated that women do not usually work they are only aloud to go to the village markets and get goods for their family's and raise there many children. I asked about minimum wage and he kinda laughed and said some teens and men who work are lucky to get a dollar an hour, but he said the people who are lucky enough to get to do what he got to do make there family's a lot of money. He said when he started coming to America to work he was picked like a lottery pick because there are only so many jobs for little positions he and his entire family was dirt poor, but now he said his family is the richest in the village. He said that he has also got to move all of his immediate family to America.
Criminology is the study of crime and criminals; a branch of sociology. More accurately, it is the study of crime as a social trend, and its overall origins, its many manifestations and its impact upon society as a whole. That makes it more a form of sociology than a law enforcement tool. But the trends it studies have a huge impact on the way the police do their jobs, the way society treats its criminals, and the way a given community goes about maintaining law and order. The writer will describe and give examples of the three perspectives of viewing crimes. The perspectives that will be highlighted are the consensus view, the conflict view or the interactionist view. Each perspective maintain its own interpretation of what constitutes criminal activities and what causes people to engage in criminal behaviors (Siegel, p.12).
Conflict criminology strives to locate the root cause of crime and tries to analyze how status and class inequality influences the justice system. The study of crime causation by radical criminologist increased between 1980s and 1990s as this led to the emergence of many radical theories such as Marxist criminology, feminist criminology, structural criminology, critical criminology, left realist criminology and peacemaking criminology (Rigakos, 1999). In spite of critical criminology encompassing many broad theories, some common themes are shared by radical research. The basic themes show how macro-level economic structures and crime are related, effects of power differentials, and political aspects in defining criminal acts.
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.
Discuss the social psychological approach in psychology and identify the kinds of questions that social psychologists attempt to answer.
In order to answer my question I need to undergo research to comprehend the concept of criminology and to determine how long this area of interest has been studied to ensure any conclusions made are valid. Mikaela Murray (Law Student) (2014) states “criminology is the scientific procedure of studying both sociological and individual criminal actions.” Clifford Sanders also agrees criminology is the study of both social and individual criminal actions but he believes it is divided into separate areas which including psychology economics, political science, natural science, biology and the evaluation and development of people.