Social Problems Perspective vs. Social Responsibility Perspective - Essay Example

Social Problems Perspective vs. Social Responsibility Perspective in regards to Criminality Introduction Crime is any action which is againstthe laws accepted by general society. This definition, however, is deceptively simple, as we can see when we consider what is defined as crime in one society may not be regarded as crime by another. For example the ritual of human sacrifices was not considered a crime by the Inca's, however if someone did exactly the same thing today in the U.S., he would be given a life-sentence at the very least. In the light of this example we can also observe that what is observed as crime may also vary with time. And, of course, social perspectives of crime will also vary as the definition of crime varies. In the past criminals' treatment was much harsher than it is today, as it is accepted now that behind a criminal act there are other factors over which the perpetrator of the act has no control. Various theories have been put forward which attempt to explain the causes of crime. Before the 19th century the prevailing view of criminality was the social responsibility perspective, however in the early 19th century a new perspective - the social problems perspective was advocated, which has grown in influence ever since. Social Responsibility Perspective Three of the world's major religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism mention the story of allegedly the first ever crime committed by human hand, the story of the two brothers known as Kane and Abel in the Bible. Kane murdered his brother out of jealously and was cursed by God for all eternity. This attitude - a complete intolerance for crime - was the one held by almost everyone (except of course the criminal's themselves) until the 1950's. It is known as the Social Responsibility Perspective of Criminality to sociologists and criminologists today. To be clearer, the social responsibility perspective states that a criminal is responsible for his actions, he himself makes the choice to avoid a job which complies with the law turning to crime. The social responsibility perspective is based on criminology's classical school of thought. This school of thought began around 1850; one of its prominent patrons was Jeremy Bentham. This school of thought is based on the principle that individuals always have a free will. In addition the classical school maintains that every individual is a 'hedonist' - he or she prefers pleasure to pain, therefore the best way to combat crime is through punishment. The greater the pain caused by the punishment the better. Although the principles of this point of view appear barbaric, this was the generally accepted perspective of crime before the 19th century. The Spanish Inquisition is an apt example of the social responsibility perspective in action. Masked man inflicted terrible torture on helpless men who had broken the law in any way; the most well-known of these horrors is perhaps torture on 'the rack'. Crime has always been the easier way to earn money. The only deterrent to adopting a criminal lifestyle is the penalties which have been imposed on crime by society. A person who is willing to run the risk of punishment becomes a criminal. In doing so he or she turns his back to his social responsibilities. All individuals are products of a society; they are brought-up not just by their immediate family but by the society as a whole. This up-bringing or socialization, to be accurate, is a debt an individual owes to society. It is his duty to repay that debt by becoming a part of the society and helping it carry on the cycle of socialization. When a person becomes a criminal he betrays the trust society placed in him. Impact of Religion Religion is an extremely important part of the socialization process and, hence plays a vital role in the formation of social perspectives of criminality. As mentioned through the example of Kane and Abel, religion supports the social responsibility perspective. Basically all religions are a penal code. This penal code includes do's and don'ts and consequences of these do's and don'ts. The major religions - Islam, Judaism and Christianity - all maintain that God has given free will to all men. Satan entices men towards wrong-doing or, more appropriately, crime, and it is man's duty to use his free will to override this enticement. Man's life is a 'test', thus religions tend to have an intolerant view of any criminal act, labeling it as the weakness of men. The existence of social factors for these crimes is dismissed as an extension to that very 'test'. Maintenance of Power The most prominent citizens of society are those who are better off i.e. they are from the higher class of society. These are the people who have the most prominent role in formulating the laws and they are also the most involved in administering these laws. Often these laws are in place to keep the ruling elite in power, not out of any consideration for the benefit of society. So any crime is likely to be attributed to the person rather than society. The elite class advocates the social responsibility perspective, accusing an individual for his crime and punishing him accordingly to set an example to the rest of society. If the ruling class accepts the fact that social problems are the cause of the problems, their laws, which are keeping them in power, will be rendered useless and the classes will be able to break the laws and hence the power of the elite. Strengths Keeping the social responsibility perspective in mind the ideal way of eradicating crime is punishing the offenders as the classical school of criminological thought argues. These punishments will serve as an example to all the members of society discouraging them from participating in criminal acts. If all murderers are 'hung by the neck until dead' it is unlikely that many individuals will commit murder. In addition, individuals will do their utmost to avoid crime regardless of any social problems which may act as stimuli to crime, because they know the consequences. This will result in members of society with greater strength of will and greater strength of character. Limitations All people have the ability to choose their actions that is why they should be held responsible for them. The logic of this argument appears undeniable; however it ignores several issues that must be considered. A French philosopher once said that though we are all born free we are all chained in one way or another. These chains are not around our arms and legs but around our minds. One person steals a loaf of bread to prevent himself from starvation and another steals a rare painting merely to satisfy his artistic taste. In both cases the conditions are very different and one cannot merely say that they both had the freedom to choose not to steal and now they should both be punished for their theft in the same manner. So the social responsibility perspective is limited in its scope, it cannot address crimes which differ in their causes but are essentially the same. It is not always 'fair'. As a result of the social responsibility perspective many offenders are sent to prison for committing a crime for which they had no choice. As a result of the socialization process in prison when the criminal emerges from prison he is a hardened criminal and an even greater danger to society. Social Problems Perspective This once radical view of criminality has now become a more or less socially acceptable one. The social problems perspective identifies the root of criminality as the social problems which plague our communities. Although this point of view of the causes of criminality was once laughed at, it has now become widely accepted by criminologists all over the world. However it has still to achieve the same popularity in general society. Although peoples' opinions of criminals have been revised to a great extent over the years, the idea that a criminal is not responsible for his actions remains hard to swallow for most people. Thanks to the work of sociologists society's perception of criminals has changed over the years. This change for the better began in 1818 when economic factors were, for the first time, suggested as the primary causes of crime. Over the years the influence of this theory has grown and theory itself has expanded to encompass not only economic factors, like poverty, but also all other problems of society. Sociologists now commonly refer to this view of crime as the social problems perspective. This perspective of crime is a relatively new one and it has resulted in various radical changes in our law-enforcement forces and our prison systems. From the social problems perspective people do not choose to commit crime, it is the conditions around them that leave them no choice. By choice all men want to conform to society, they do not want to disobey society; however other factors compel them to resort to crime. In a perfect society, where there is no poverty and all men are equal, crime would be non-existent. As people would have no problems they would not have to resort to crime. There would be complete harmony. Sadly our society today is far from perfect. Poverty is commonplace; signs of discrimination - whether it is racial discrimination, religious discrimination or class discrimination - are everywhere. Poverty Maybe the greatest of social problems which cause crime is poverty, it is frequently been cited by criminologists who support the social problems perspective. A person who steals in order to stay alive is a common theme used by novelists and script writers alike. If a person is dying from hunger without a job it is unlikely that he will respect the laws of his country and die peacefully, content with the knowledge that he has died respecting the law. Due to unemployment he has little other choice but to steal. Discrimination Terrorism is horrendous crime which has infected the globe to a terrible extent. Israel frequently accuses Hezbollah of acts of terrorism such as suicide bombings in public places. This indiscriminate killing serves only one purpose - to create a general atmosphere of terror or fear in a particular society, needless to say suicide bombings succeed in accomplish this garish objective. Now Hezbollah is a militant Islamic group which is fighting religious discrimination of Arabs by the Jews of Israel. In the face of Israel's military strength they have few other methods to fight this discrimination but terrorism. In this case social discrimination is compelling individuals to crime. Poor Socialization Socialization is the process by which an individual learns the do's and don'ts of living in society. In the past the process of socialization was quite straight forward. As a child grew up he would learn how he was supposed to behave and what was expected of him from observing his elders, however in the 21st century things are a little more complicated. Now a child does not just have his elders to follow but an entire collection of people he sees on the television screen. This leads to different sets of values in his mind, the child is not clear about what he has to do he has too many role models to follow, confusion will result and the child's socialization process will be marred. Crime can result from this confusion. Deterioration of Social Institutions The most important of all social institutions is the family. Before the decline of religion and the advent of feminism, a family was a feature of every person's life. Although family structure varied across societies, the family did exist everywhere. In a family a group of people have close bonds with each other; members of a family divide economic and emotional strain equally. Today, however, marriage is slowly becoming a thing of the past. The concept of every man for himself is taking its place, individualism is on the rise. Without people to turn to who will help a person out of his problems, he has greater incentive to resort to crime. Impact of the Mass Media Television violence is one of the newer terms coined by sociologists. It refers to aggression displayed on the T.V screen. Studies have shown that children exposed to this violence tend to be more aggressive compared to those who have not. So the youngsters of today have a greater tendency to engage in violent crime. Strengths In contrast to the social responsibility perspective, the social problems perspective is quite new. Before the 19th century the social responsibility perspective was the only prevailing one i.e. a person is responsible for the crime he commits, society has no effect on his behavior. Severe punishments such as ripping out the tongues of blasphemers or scalding the hands of thieves were common occurrences in the past. However these punishments have apparently had no positive effect - crime continues to plague our societies; in fact one could say crime has increased over the years. So the social problems perspective provides and alternative point of view, another cause of criminality - social problems. This allows law enforcement agencies to employ a different approach to stop crime and increase social harmony. The agencies can focus on eradicating social problems instead of inflicting increasingly severe punishments on offenders. The eradication of poverty and discrimination, and the reconstruction of social institutions will benefit society as a whole even if the crime rate does not fall. Limitations Unfortunately, in addition to those who are compelled by social problems to resort to crime there are also those who commit in spite of the fact that they have choices. These individuals can be broadly categorized into two groups: those who become criminals because they are too lazy to earn money in a law-abiding manner and those who commit crime because it gives them a 'thrill'. These 'real' criminals can take advantage of any institution which has the social problems perspective. Thus criminals who ought to be punished will escape along with those who are compelled to crime. Frequently these 'real' criminals manipulate the justice system by managing to convince the Judge of problems they experienced which made them become criminals. The Debate To summarize, the two perspectives are sharply contrasting. One advocates the view that crime is caused solely due to problems which are outside the individuals' control and the other argues that each individual is responsible for his own actions. Social problems do play a significant role in causing crime, however at the end of the day every individual does have a choice. No matter how much we may pretend that we are helpless, we have to consciously make a decision to either do something or not. The best example of this compromise may be observed in today's legal system. The legal system today is not swayed entirely by either theory. In the past the punishment of all offenders was fixed, there was no possibility of arguing with authority, a criminal could not manipulate the legal system. Today, however, a criminal cannot be sentenced without legal proceedings. A criminal has the option of presenting 'his side of the story' to the judge, to show the judge which problems forced him into doing the crime. The judge in turn listens to the criminal and although the offender is not allowed to get away scot-free, his punishment can be lessened at the judge's discretion. Clearly we can see both sociological perspectives operating side by side. The criminal is punished for his crime, as the social responsibility perspective suggests, and his punishment may be reduced by the judge taking into account the external factors of society, as the social problems perspective suggests. Thus we can see that our legal system (the one active in the majority of the world) does not side with either view but rather takes a middle road. Although there are some small glitches in the system, no one can deny that it works. The very fact that it has been adopted from Britain by many countries around the world with great success is a clear indication of its value. There are countless examples of kids 'who have beat the odds', these children have risen from violent neighborhoods where drugs and guns were commonplace to become successful, hard-working members of society. This shows that people who are the victims of the same social problems land on different sides of the criminal fence. Adoption of only the social responsibility perspective will not benefit society, because it has failed to do so in the past in spite of all the efforts of governments. The earliest penal code unearthed by archeologists was that of the Sumerians, the first civilization in history. Since that time uncountable penal codes have been written each has failed to remove crime from society. However the adoption of just the social problems perspective will not be suitable due to basic human nature. We all face problems of varying degrees throughout our lives, and if society accepted any problem as an excuse to perform a crime, everyone would become a criminal. So, to conclude, neither perspective can be adopted completely, rather both perspectives should be combined and a balance found between the two. Abstract In this report the social viewpoints of criminality - the social responsibility perspective and the social problems perspective have been over-viewed, each perspectives strengths and limitations have been highlighted. First an explanation of what crime exactly is and how the definition of crime affects perspectives. Then an in-depth overview of the two social perspectives has been given. The social responsibility perspective has been thoroughly explained and two major factors which have contributed to its influence - religious impact and maintenance of power - have been highlighted. The social problems perspective has been dealt with in the same way - an overview, followed by several specific problems: poverty, discrimination, poor socialization, disintegration of social institutions and impact of the mass media which have been elaborated. . After the two perspectives have been over-viewed they have been compared and contrasted and a position has been taken on the debate supported by a written defense Sources Deflem, M (2006). Sociological Theory and Criminological Research: Views from Europe and the United States. Elsevier. Pearson, CJCENTRAL: Criminology Today, 3E: Glossary. from http://www.prenhall.com/cjcentral/crimtoday4e/glossary/s.html Cox, J (18-05-2002). What Causes Crime. SocialistWorkerOnline, 1800, from http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.phpid=5626 Read More